Monday, May 12, 2008 Martinez wants removal of Calayans' licenses
THE Filipino-American businessman who filed a P26-million damage suit against doctors Manny and Pie Calayan has asked the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to strip the prominent cosmetic surgeons of their licenses to practice their profession for allegedly mishandling his penile enlargement operation.
Sought for comment, the Calayans' lawyer, Reggie Ukol, said they have not yet received any summon from the PRC.
"I don't think my client has received the summons and complaint for the PRC case of Martinez," he said.
In his complaint filed before the PRC's Medical Board, Louem Martinez said the former should ban the Calayans from practicing medicine in the country for committing "medical malpractices" and violating "basic bioethical principles and unethical conducts."
These, according to Martinez, are "in gross violation of the Code of Ethics of the Board of Medicine and other related Ethical Code of Conduct."
"The operation of Dr. (Manny) Calayan has practically destroyed or stolen the complainant's manhood and future family because such operation could render him impotent for life or may cause his untimely death," part of Martinez' complaint stated.
Martinez said he would have not undergone the operation on September 24 last year without the "repeated representation, assurances, re-assurances, confirmation and re-confirmation of Dr. Calayan" that he is an expert in penile enlargement operations.
The New York-based businessman elevated the case to the PRC after filing criminal charges of estafa, reckless imprudence resulting to physical injury, and obstruction of justice against the Calayans before the Makati City Prosecutors Office.
In asking for P26-million compensation, Martinez said instead of enlarging his penis as assured by Calayan, the operation resulted in the disfigurement of his sex organ that rendered him sexually impotent.
The complainant's lawyer Dioscoro Peligro said none of the medical experts they sought for advice recommended the use of a chemical the Calayans called "aqua gel" in penis-enhancement procedures.
Peligro said Calayan also erred when he conducted liposuction on Martinez to remove the cyst that grew in the left side of his stomach.
"But months after the operation, the cyst re-grew and multiplied, further worsening Martinez' physical ordeal," he recounted.
He said they have consulted "many" doctors in the US that attested that liposuction should not have been employed in a cyst removal procedure.
In his PRC complaint, Martinez said Manny and Pie and their staff at the Calayan Surgicentre in Makati acted in conspiracy to deceive him into undergoing the operation, which he described as "a fraud, deceit, and false", for which he paid over P150,000.(AH/Sunnex)
