Thursday, May 08, 2008 Speak out: The bigger scandal By J.H. Tequillo Tequillo, Suson and Manuales Law Offices
MUCH has been said against the medical professionals in the canister case at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), but where is the truth?
As of the moment, the public does not know that aside from the video footage uploaded in YouTube is an official version taken by VSMMC for the doctors’ post-operation conference on the unusual case.
But this footage has been hidden from the public.
VSMMC officials are afraid of the truth that the angry mob may have been wrong in rushing to condemn the doctors based merely on the YouTube version of the incident.
Everybody presumed that the YouTube footage gave a truthful account and that it was not tampered with or spliced to make the doctors look vicious.
Yet until today nobody has come out to identify, authenticate and own the YouTube footage or to testify under oath that it was not spliced or tampered with.
The YouTube version made it appear that the surgical procedure happened in barely three minutes. But VSMMC medical records indicate that the procedure took at least 13 minutes.
The YouTube version implies that only about three doctors participated in the operation whether as observers or part of the surgical team.
But VSMMC footage shows the presence of at least 12 doctors, almost half of the entire VSMMC residents and a good number from the anesthesia department.
Intrusion
The YouTube version does not show the face of the culprit, meaning the outsider who took the footage on his mobile phone, made the nastiest side comments and passed on the footage, which was later spliced and uploaded on the website, to other people.
VSMMC or the Department of Health did not even hold this outsider accountable for anything apparently because it has no jurisdiction over him.
The bigger truth is that VSMMC did not have any policy against the entry of outsiders in their operating rooms.
Then there is the cowardice of its leaders. None of them had the courage to admit responsibility on the canister issue; rather, they were quick to condemn their employees.
None of them had the courage to openly protect its doctors from the effects of the YouTube footage. This single
inadmissible evidence on the incident should not be used as basis to destroy another person’s life.
None of the VSMMC officials had the courage to paint a complete picture of the incident: that their doctors are not monsters and that, on the contrary, they save lived on a daily basis and that a 15-minute surgical procedure could not define their love for their patients.
None of the VSMMC officials had the courage to tell the public what was in their hearts: that the surgical team did an impressive job, that they saved Jan-Jan’s life, and that the doctors had the right to be present in the operation being residents in training.
None of the VSMMC officials had the courage to tell the public that while Jan-Jan may have been a victim of sexual abuse, he was not a victim of defamation or libel.
Nobody would have known that his anus was displayed on YouTube had he not come out in public.
Doctors’ work
VSMMC only has 15 surgical resident doctors serving some 3,850,000 people, or at least 250,000 persons per surgeon. Day in and day out their work never ends.
Take away seven surgeons or 12 doctors who took part in the surgical procedure and VSMMC operation would be crippled. In the meantime, who will take care of the poor patients?
It is alright to condemn doctors who misbehave but the public must condemn on the basis of truth.
The VSMMC leadership, on the other hand, must show some love and compassion for its doctors. They must give the public the complete picture:
That their doctors are human beings and have been anonymously saving lives and thus need compassion, mercy and prayers.
