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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Patient to seek court's help to get hospital records
CEBU CITY -- The lawyer representing "Jan-Jan" is planning to file a petition asking the appeals court to compel the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) to release all records of his recent surgery.
This, lawyer Guiller Ceniza said, is if the hospital management continues to frustrate their efforts to identify the medical team that performed and filmed the procedure that got circulated through YouTube and cell phone video clips.
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"We are drafting a formal letter asking the hospital for the records. If they still refuse, then we will file our petition," Ceniza said, adding that they may ask for a writ of habeas data to gain the records.
Video: VSMMC press briefing
VSMMC official statement
The records, he said, will be used as supporting documents in the suit they intend to file against the hospital management and the medical team. The video showed doctors and nurses laughing and hooting as they pulled a perfume canister from Jan-Jan's rectum.
Since then, the video has provoked outrage over how Jan-Jan's dignity and privacy were violated by those supposed to be responsible for his care.
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Ceniza added that their intended use of the document might be what is motivating the hospital to withhold the documents.
But, he added, the hospital only has itself to blame.
"We would have been willing to only go after the individuals concerned. But they withheld the names of those involved even after their supposed fact-finding investigation," Ceniza said.
In the meantime, Ceniza said he and Jan-Jan are finalizing the affidavit-complaint and supporting documents they will submit to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas on Monday.
The affidavit will be used as basis for the criminal and administrative complaint the anti-graft office will launch.
"We have partial records," he said, referring to the discharge sheet and other records detailing what the procedure to be performed on Jan-Jan was.
"It is the very same procedure that was conducted on the patient in the YouTube video. This can confirm that my client and the patient in the video are one," he said. (KNR of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (April 20, 2008 issue)
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