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Sunday, January 05, 2003
Hospital investigated doctor for death of ‘misdiagnosed’ child, 7
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE management of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) is withholding comment on the most recent controversy involving one of its physicians, though an official statement is expected tomorrow.
The hospital’s information officer, however, revealed that an inquiry has already been conducted because the Barrosa couple approached the VSMMC management prior to filing their complaint against Dr. Mae Ozaraga before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas last Friday.
Eleodoro Mongaya Jr. said the hospital has, in fact, concluded its investigation but is not yet releasing its findings pending whatever action the anti-graft office will take on the complaint filed by the Barrosas.
In the meantime, Dr. Orazaga continues to perform her duties in the government-run facility, and was on duty when Sun.Star visited VSSMC yesterday. She conveyed via Mongaya that she did not wish to be interviewed.
Despite the hospital’s no-comment position, Mongaya denied the allegations that the Barrosa couple has hurled against Ozaraga and the hospital, adding the statements they included in their affidavit before the anti-graft office were untrue.
It was not true, he said, that Ozaraga was asleep when they brought their seven-year-old child Cristian to the hospital last Dec. 14 and that a medical intern was left to do the diagnosis and write the prescription.
Last tests
It was Ozaraga herself who attended to the child, diagnosed him with “acute tonsille pharyngitis” and scribbled the prescription that she instructed the parents to purchase and administer based on a given dosage.
Cristian was treated as an “out-patient” when he was brought to the hospital around 4 a.m. of Dec. 14.
His parents were told they go to a medical laboratory and ask for a complete blood count and other tests, then to come back on Monday.
It was on that day, Mongaya said, the hospital’s medical staff would make a complete diagnosis on the patient.
The Barrosa couple failed to come back on Monday and submit the test results that are normally given free at the hospital, but only to emergency patients.
Mongaya said the next thing they heard was that the patient died and that the Barrosa couple was blaming them for their child’s demise.
In their affidavit, Esteve and Arlen Barrosa said Cristian came home with a fever last Dec. 13 and was given a paracetamol tablet by his grandmother.
Since his condition continued to worsen, to the point of convulsion, Cristian was brought to the VSMMC around 2 a.m. of Dec. 14.
The attending physician, they said, did not perform any kind of laboratory examination on the child and, four hours after admission, he was discharged with the assurance that he was merely suffering from ordinary fever brought about by his inflamed tonsils.
Three days after he was first taken to the VSMMC, Cristian died.
(January 5, 2003 issue)
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