THE Department of Health (DOH) 7 has started its investigation into the death of a mother at the Mandaue City Hospital.
It yesterday sent a fact-finding team led by Dr. Sophia Mancao, head of the DOH 7 licensing enforcement division, to the City Hospital.
The team had a meeting with Dr. Ma. Lourdes Espinoza, chief of the City Hospital, yesterday afternoon but both parties declined to discuss the details of the meeting when asked by reporters.
The closed-door meeting lasted three hours.
Cesar Coliflores, 42, an overseas Filipino worker, blamed a physician and nurses at the City Hospital for the death of his wife, Jocelyn, 40, last Jan. 2.
Last Jan. 13, he posted on social networking site Facebook a video clip of her wife going hysterical in her hospital bed less than a hour before she died. The clip, taken by their eight-year-old son, has since made rounds on the Internet with nearly 300,000 views.
Jocelyn, a pharmacy attendant, went to the hospital around 6 p.m. last Jan. 2 and asked to be confined for her recurring fever. She died at 10:45 p.m.
Coliflores said the medication administered to her wife may have caused her death. He said his wife was given medication for urinary tract infection even though she had not undergone laboratory tests.
According to the death certificate issued by the hospital, Jocelyn died from “probable ruptured cerebral aneurysm,” meaning a vein in her head could have popped.
An autopsy report secured by Cesar, however, stated that his wife died from “sudden cardiac arrest” and “left ventricular hypertrophy”, both involving her heart malfunctions.
Mayor Jonas Cortes has assured the City will investigate Jocelyn’s death and hold erring medical personnel accountable.
The City Legal Office has sought the opinion of the DOH 7 after receiving a copy of a document from the City Hospital narrating their version of facts about the death.
City Legal Officer Giovanni Tianero asked the agency to assess whether or not the manner in which the patient was handled by medical personnel was correct.