Friday, May 16, 2008 Family plans to sue hospital for ‘failing to attend immediately’ to wounded cop
FOR defending himself against three men who robbed him inside his own taxicab, SPO4 Asterio Butron was awarded posthumously with a heroism medal yesterday.
Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos also said his family will receive P1.4 million in benefits, a monthly pension for his widow Generosa and scholarship for his three children until they finish college.
The orders said Butron’s bravery was “worthy of emulation.” At the PRO 7 headquarters yesterday, the flag was flown at half mast in his honor.
But these did little to appease his family, who is planning to sue officials of the Mactan Doctors’ Hospital.
Wait
Generosa told reporters yesterday that there was no doctor on duty at the hospital and that they had to wait for an hour because the doctor who had to attend to him had to come all the way from Cebu City.
“What kind of a hospital has no doctor on duty? They are doctors. They are there to save lives. I was very disappointed,” said his eldest daughter Riogen, a third year nursing student.
She pointed out that although her father was wounded, he still managed to talk and hail a cab to bring himself to the hospital.
“Og mao na, maypa diay’g didto siya sa public hospital kay naa pa’y doctor (It might have been better if he went to a public hospital because there would have been a doctor there),” Riogen said.
A hospital official admitted there was no surgeon around when Butron arrived at the emergency room, but he said doctors and nurses performed all emergency medical procedures to save the patient.
Dr. Joselito Montes-claros, hospital administrator, said doctors worked on volume replacement, a procedure that replenishes a wounded patient’s blood and fluids.
“We did call for the surgeon to come, but our two ER physicians and nurses were already attending to him. It just so happened that he was in a serious (and critical) stage... Our surgeon did come and immediately attended to Butron. We also monitored his condition continuously,” Montesclaros said.
Autopsy
Butron was shot when he attempted to subdue three passengers who robbed him inside the taxi he was riding in a dark area on Maximo Patalin-jug Ave. in Barangay Basak.
Dr. Nestor Sator, chief of the Regional Crime Laboratory, performed the autopsy on Butron last Wednesday and confirmed that there may have been a chance for Butron to survive had he been given immediate medical attention.
Sator said none of the bullets hit his vital organs, although he bled profusely and needed to be attended to right away.
Immediate attention
“He needed immediate surgical attention to stop the bleeding,” Sator told Sun.Star Cebu.
One bullet entered his right cheek and went through the left jaw while the second bullet entered the right side of his back but missed the heart and the lungs.
He noted that blood clots had accumulated in Butron’s thoracic cavity and that he drank some of his blood because some of it ended up in his stomach.
“Duna’y possibility nga mabuhi kung natagad siya dayon, pero di gyud ta kasiguro gihapon (There’s a possibility that he could have survived had he been attended to immediately, but still, we cannot be sure),” he said.
One thing he is sure of, though, is that his death was not “instantaneous” since none of his vital organs was hit.
Riogen did not immediately learn about her father’s death as those around her decided not to tell her immediately.
She had been busy during her exams and her classmates decided not to inform her so she could concentrate on her examinations.
She said learning about how her father was treated at the hospital hurt her the most.
Investigation
Roderos said he has requested Lapu-Lapu City Police Director Louie Oppus to find out the circumstances on his treatment at the hospital.
He said Oppus had been directed to find out what time Butron arrived at the hospital and what time he was attended to.
Oppus, for his part, asked the public to give them time to conduct their investigation and assured that they were doing their best.
He said that what they need to focus on is the crime that was committed.
Though no suspect has been identified so far, Oppus said that robbery is a more likely motive, based on the evidence recovered from the taxi.
He assured that he is taking all of Roderos’ orders seriously, including the use of civilian assets, barangay tanods and possibly offering a reward to whoever can help
them identify and arrest Butron’s attackers.
“We are doing our best. We are not sitting on the case, but this will take time,” Oppus added. (MEA/AIV)
