AN INDIAN national has been on hunger strike since Friday over the death of his four-year-old daughter in 2011, which he blamed on alleged hospital negligence.
Ivan Fernandes, 51, said he won’t eat until Chong Hua Hospital will refund the expenses he incurred that amount to around P1.5 million.
He said the hospital gave him P100,000 last year.
He said he opted to settle since he cannot afford to sue the hospital since he is bankrupt.
Fernandes said doctors at the hospital “were not keen enough to follow the medical instructions and monitor” his daughter’s condition.
He wrote a letter-complaint to Health Secretary Enrique Ona in August last year.
He said his daughter Ishen Abigail was confined in the intensive care unit (ICU) on Dec. 4, 2011.
On one occasion, he said, her bed collapsed when a medical technologist sat on it to take blood samples, “even if there was a big sign that no one else than the patient should sit/lay on the bed.”
He said the nursing department’s head entered Ishen’s room and apologized “for the inconvenience.”
Other complaints
“As if my daughter was just a piece of commodity or this instance was a mere service disruption,” he said. “We have to wait for over an hour as the department concerned could not provide another bed.”
Fernandes said he saw off-duty nurses rehearing a dance number and doing their hair and makeup inside one of the ICU rooms.
Last June 6, the Bureau of Health Facilities and Services of the Department of Health issued a warning to the hospital in relation to Fernandes’s complaints.
“Repetition of any similar incident shall be dealt with pursuant to existing regulations. Chong Hua Hospital is hereby reminded to re-orient the staff of the hospital on their existing policies and procedures and the supervisors should continuously monitor its implementation,” the resolution read.
In a letter to DOH 7 Director Asuncion Anden in September last year, Chong Hua’s chief operating officer Dr. Helen Po apologized for the incident involving Fernandes’s daughter.
She also said the girl’s condition was already deteriorating despite the medical attention given to her.
“The patient had multiple organ dysfunction syndrome secondary to septic shock leading to the patient’s demise on the 14th hospital day,” she said.