IN NOVEMBER 2015, a 39-year-old public school teacher died at the Tuburan District Hospital (TDH) after a nurse allegedly injected her with expired insulin the former’s relatives had purchased at a nearby pharmacy later found to have no business permit or license to sell.
The Provincial Health Office (PHO) asked the doctor who ordered the nurse to inject the patient without checking the insulin’s expiry date to resign.
In July 2017, Dr. Esteban Ligaray, TDH chief, was summoned to shed light on a staff nurse who allegedly injected a patient with the wrong drug that resulted in the patient’s death.
Ligaray, however, dismissed the report, saying no patient had died from a case of wrong injection.
Later that year, in September, a woman blamed TDH personnel for the death of her baby.
She said she was admitted to the hospital on Aug. 26 when she underwent labor. After five hours when she still didn’t give birth, she was referred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City. TDH officials later found out that her baby had died.
Pictures posted by the mother on Facebook showed lacerations on the baby’s body.
Last Feb. 8, a drug suspect was brought to the hospital with several gunshot wounds. According to police, the man had tried to pull out a gun when he realized he was dealing with an undercover cop during a drug transaction in Barangay Poblacion.
The 23-year-old patient was shot in the face, chest, left arm and shoulder. He later succumbed to his injuries.
The TDH landed on the news because a hospital nurse took a video of the patient, which her colleagues later uploaded on the internet. The video went viral. Based on the footage, the patient, who was clearly in agony, was left unattended. This provoked the ire of many netizens.
The head of the PHO clarified that the patient received treatment as soon as the latter arrived in the hospital. The video didn’t capture that, he said.
It is unfortunate that past allegations of TDH’s negligence have clouded the public’s judgment. Instead of focusing on what the hospital should have done, the public should have riled at the persons responsible for the patient’s suffering.