Friday, April 18, 2008 Malilong: Is it time to leave the Jan-Jan episode behind? By Frank Malilong The Other Side
THE wife of an executive of one of the country’s biggest power companies was on her way to the Redemptorist Church early Wednesday morning when a man on a motorcycle snatched her bag. He disappeared from view even before she could cry for help.
This is not the first snatching incident in the vicinity. The area near the Redemptorist Church appears to be a favorite hunting ground for motorcycle-riding hoods who prey on unsuspecting churchgoers. I know at least two other victims: the granddaughter of a police general who used to be the commander of what is now Recom 7 and the wife of a very dear friend who has since died.
The wonder of it all is that until now there appears to be no visible effort to establish the presence of authorities in the crime-prone area. Okay, so we don’t have enough policemen to deploy all over the city but what are the Camputhaw barangay officials doing? By now they should have already posted their tanods near the church.
***
I received two very interesting reactions to my piece on the despicable behavior of the doctors and nurses who attended to the male florist who was admitted to a government hospital for the removal of a perfume canister from his rectum.
The first one came from a reader who prefers to be called “Janeth.” He/she said: “In my opinion, those so-called professionals who attended to Jan-Jan must never be allowed to practice again. Those people are heartless! I would put them in the same category as those who are practicing for the wrong reason: MONEY!”
The other is from a doctor friend who requested to remain anonymous. I quote his letter in full:
The “black suede” video came out in YouTube in January this year. At that time, it was being circulated in the medical community. Steps were then made to have it taken off YouTube and somehow it died a natural death.
In the meantime, the nursing school expelled the student who recorded and uploaded the video. The school itself has since been banned from assigning its students to the hospital, which happens to be the number one training hospital in Cebu because of the diversity of the cases that it is handling. The hospital itself conducted its own in-house investigation and the lead surgeon could lose his job for failing to exercise command responsibility.
We have a nursing student and a doctor in training learning the lessons in life in a very tragic way. But do we have to cut short their careers or should we give them a chance to move on quietly? Have we stopped for a while and given thought to the delicate nature of the procedure that was performed?
What if the pressurized can had been punctured in the course of the surgery?
What if its contents spilled into the patient’s intestines and caused it to blow up?
On the other hand, what good will the publicity do to Mr. Florist? The interest in the video has now been rekindled. But can he justify the perversion inherent in the presence of the perfume container in his rectum to the children?
People involved in the circus have learned their lessons. Steps are being made to prevent the sorry incident from recurring. The patient has hopefully learned his lesson, too.
Shouldn’t we allow the parties involved to move on quietly with their lives?
