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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Marie Stopes lawyers prepare for legal suit
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
* NBI-Bacolod is still waiting for the results of the autopsy findings before concluding its investigation; is looking into medical records
* Widower Raymundo Sioco may file case in court depending on the results of the NBI probe
* Gov warns LGUs against allowing non-accredited NGOs to conduct medical-surgical missions in their towns
MARIE Stopes, the group which performed a medical mission in Bago City and which is blamed for the death of a 39-year-old mother, is ready to face a legal battle.
A source who requested anonymity told Sun.Star that the groups legal counsels are studying the case after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Bacolod District Office said it has already started its investigation on the matter.
Marie Stopes, a Cebu-based non-government organization, was implicated in the death of 39-year-old Percy Miranda Sioco.
Sioco went through a tubal ligation operation when the group conducted its free medical-surgical mission at the Bago City District Hospital (BCDH) last Nov. 25.
The NBI revealed that Dr. Aileen Apurillo, who hails from Bantayan, Cebu, was the one who conducted the ligation operation.
Sioco, who hails from Hacienda Socorro, Purok Paghidaet, Barangay Sagasa, Bago City, was said to have died of septicemia or blood poisoning.
As of press time, Apurillo nor Bago City Health Officer Dr. Pilar Mabasa cannot be reached for comments.
Philip Pecache, officer-in-charge of NBI-Bacolod, however, contended, "it might be the moral responsibility of City health officer Mabasbas to have permitted unaccredited providers like the Marie Stopes to conduct voluntary surgical contraception (VSC) among their woman-constituents in Bago City after the issuance of a radio message from the Department of Health Region 6 dated April 20, 2005."
Health Region 6 director Lyndia Depra-Ramos, in her radio message to the governors, provincial health officers, family planning coordinators and health representatives in Western Visayas, stressed, "It is the policy of the Department of Health to accredit providers on VCS since 1986. According to our roster of accredited providers, Marie Stopes is not included. The LGU should not entertain or allow providers of VSC who are not accredited. It is the responsibility of the LGU to police their ranks."
Mabasa in her earlier statement to the media also confirmed reading the said message months before the free medical-surgical mission in Bago City was conducted.
"She has to put that in her affidavit later," said Pecache who clarified yesterday that they cannot as yet move until the official result of the autopsy report of the bureau's medico-legal officer Dr. Oropella is released.
Nevertheless, Pecache stressed they would only move to file charges if the evidences warrants it and if there will be a complainant.
In Bago City, Sioco's husband Raymundo disclosed that in case the findings of the autopsy merits the filing of criminal charges, then he would not hesitate to pursue the case against those found responsible for the death of his wife. He is banking on the NBI's moves.
Pecache said, "We are now on the process of authenticating all documents regarding the mess." Aside from Sioco's medical records submitted by Mabasa, the bureau still needs vital documents to go deeper on the case, which include the patient's medical abstracts from the BCDH and the CLMMRH.
Pecache also clarified that they still could not conclude whether or not a crime was committed in this case. If there was, the suspects maybe held liable of negligence or simple negligence resulting to homicide, he said.
Governor Joseph Marañon also reiterated Wednesday his previous warning to all local chief executives against any non-accredited NGOs doing medical-surgical mission in the province.
Marañon also has an April 29, 2005 memorandum in this regard.
The content, he stressed, "is relative to the Population Services Pilipinas, Incorporated (Marie Stopes), an itinerant, non-government organization based in Cebu that is performing female Voluntary Surgical Sterilization services sometime in the year 2003 to the present in the different district hospitals in coordination with the varied local government units. The mission of PSPI is to provide Sexual and Reproductive Health Care."
He said that based on the monitoring conducted by a DOH representative and the PHO Family Planning Program coordinator on the implementation the Marie Stopes did not follow DOH standards when they conducted their missions at the Don Salvador Benedicto Memorial Hospital in La Carlota City and the Cadiz District Hospital.
He added that his office had also received verbal reports from health personnel of the different LGUs on certain complications that arose from the processes like hematoma, infected wounds and failure to ligate two fallopian tubes.
"If Mabasa only said no to the offer, then the mayor of Bago would probably won't also allow the mission," stressed Pecache.
"Legally speaking, Dr. Mabasa has no liability nor that she committed any violation yet," clarified Pecache. Except, however, that she allowed the mission with the risk and to the expense of their constituents, the NBI-Bacolod OIC said.
Bago City Mayor Janet Torres, on the other hand, asked the public not to judge any doctors yet regarding the case of Sioco.
The lady mayor also said that it cannot be concluded whether or not the case of Sioco would be considered a "medical malpractice."
Torres vowed not to allow anymore any providers to conduct medical/surgical mission anywhere and everywhere in Bago.
(December 15, 2005 issue)
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