2 Davao Doctors Face Negligence Charges

Saturday, September 27, 2004
By Raquel C. Bagnol

DAVAO — Two medical doctors stand accused of recklessness and negligence of duty in a case filed by the husband of a patient they operated on in March 2003.

Manuel Te of A-9 Kalamansig, Barangay Pelo in Polomolok, South Cotabato alleged his wife suffered even more and was brought to "the brink of death" because of the operations.

Charged before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities are James Soriano and Silvestre Gonzales, both of the Davao Doctors Hospital (DDH).

DDH president Dr. Herminio Villano, however, said Friday that the Philippine Society of Neuro-Surgeons conducted an investigation on the case and found nothing wrong with the operations conducted on the patient by the two respondents.

"Dr. Soriano and Dr. Gonzales did their best but it was hard to operate because the patient’s brain was swollen. It was a case of a ruptured aneurysm," Villano said.

"Although hindi na-relieve ang pasyente, hindi naman nag-worsen ang condition ng pasyente," he added. (Although the operation did not bring relief to the patient, her condition also did not worsen.)

He insists the two doctors did their best, and attributed the worsening of the patient’s condition to her illness.

In his complaint, Te claimed he took his wife Jane to DDH for consultation on February 18 after she complained of severe headache that later diagnosed as "saccular aneurysm."

After the diagnosis, Te decided to have his wife airlifted to Manila for treatment but the two respondents allegedly told him there was no need to do so because the illness was a minor one and they could easily conduct the surgery.

Te’s wife underwent two operations: the first on February 18, 2002 and the other on March 7, 2003.

But Te claimed that after the operations, his wife became comatose and her condition worsened.

Te claimed he was billed by DDH a total of P850,000 and he incurred another P500,000 for medicines bought outside the hospital.

He said he had his wife transferred to the San Pedro Hospital for further treatment where he was billed P3.6 million plus an additional P520,000 for medicines.

He claimed he had to hire the services of three nurses on an eight-hour shift to take care of his wife.

He allegedly paid each nurse P500 everyday for eight months, or a total of P1,500 a day as wages and P360,000 for the eight months his wife was in the care of the nurses.

Te claimed he spent a total of P5,830,000 on hospital bills and medicines.

Sun.Star Davao