Friday, November 23, 2007 Hospital waived medical charges before hostage-taking, says chief
THE Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) denied any bills were charged for the delivery of the wife of the 43-year-old man who held his two-day-old son hostage last Wednesday.
A hospital official said they should not be blamed for what happened.
Edito Patiño, a fisherman from Barangay Cotcot in the northern town of Liloan, Cebu, threatened to drop his son from the first floor of the VSMMC out of desperation.
He earlier said he didn’t know where to get money to pay for his wife’s hospital bills.
There were reports that the family would be charged more than P15,000.
However, hospital medical chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino said the couple didn’t have to pay for anything because they were assessed by social workers and identified under category D.
Families identified under this category are those who are indigent and don’t have to pay a single centavo when they go out of the hospital.
Aquino said he doesn’t know where these reports came from and if there were bills, these would serve as a record for the government to know how much was charged for the medical procedure.
The police is gathering affidavits from witnesses to support the complaints of anti-child abuse law violation against Patiño.
Patiño was arrested by operatives of the Fuente Police Station, but was transferred later that day to the VSMMC’s psychiatric ward upon the request of his family.
Chief Insp. Henry Biñas, Fuente Osmeña police station chief, in a telephone interview, said he directed SPO1 Richard Catacutan, chief investigator, to gather affidavits from witnesses, especially the hospital security personnel.
In a separate interview, Dr. Aquino said one of the hospital’s staff, also a neighbor of Patiño, told them that the man uses drugs.
However, in an interview with ABS-CBN TV Patrol, Patino’s family denied the allegations.
Patino’s mother said her son doesn’t smoke, drink and take drugs because he is asthmatic.
Alicia, Patiño’s wife, said she pities her husband because he was just so pressured by their dire straits.
Alicia is still at the VSMMC, while the husband is in the hospital’s psychiatric ward. (TEP/JST)
