THE family of a woman who died after an alleged hospital negligence is willing to file both criminal and administrative complaints against a private hospital in Lapu-Lapu City where she died.
This was confirmed by lawyer Robert Labe, co-legal counsel of Joselito Sabayog Jr., the common-law husband of Maribel Entera. Entera, 26, died after bleeding profusely after giving birth last Dec. 25.
Labe told SunStar Cebu they are ready to file charges for violation of Republic Act 10932 or the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law and reckless imprudence resulting to homicide against ARC hospital in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City.
Entera went into labor and Sabayog, 28, brought her to the Paanakan Center in the barangay around 7 a.m. of Dec. 25.
She had a normal delivery.
But when Entera started bleeding several minutes later, the midwives, who got alarmed, referred her to the ARC Hospital in Barangay Agus.
Sabayog decided to take her there because it wasn’t that far and he thought the doctors could attend to his wife immediately. However, his wife died at the hospital and he claimed the hospital staff didn’t attend to her right away because he was not able to give a down payment of P35,000.
The hospital earlier denied this, saying while it asked for a down payment, the staff immediately attended to Entera. Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, ARC Hospital administrator, said when Entera arrived at the hospital, she was bleeding profusely and had lost a lot of blood. The hospital doctor could not operate on her until she was stabilized, she said.
Labe questioned why the hospital had only one bag of blood available when, in fact, it is a level 3 hospital. He also noted that even if Entera was bleeding, she was still conscious during
that time.
“According to my friends, doctors and physicians from the Department of Health (DOH), that situation wouldn’t have resulted in death had she been attended to immediately. Now they are saying they gave her a chance to transfer to another hospital? That’s a lie since they asked for a down payment,” Labe said.
Officials of the ARC Hospital, however, said they did not have enough supply of blood during that time because it is usually hard to look for donors every month of December, when most of the holidays are scheduled.
Despite this, the hospital said it still coordinates with other health-care facilities in case of emergency. However, it would be the family of the patients who will have to secure it, just as what they instructed Sabayog to do.
Sought for comment, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, DOH Central Visayas director, said he will have the administration of ARC Hospital answer these allegations if there is already a formal complaint filed against them.
“We will verify the information as soon as it comes and then we will try to ask the administration of the hospital to give an answer,” he said. (GCM with reports from WBS )