Hospital asks court for more time

PERPETUAL Succour Hospital wants more time to answer the P5.16-million damage suit filed by an American over alleged medical malpractice.

Hospital lawyer Allan Orvien Geotina filed a motion asking Regional Trial Court Judge Ricky Jones Macabaya to give them 30 days extension to file their answer to the civil complaint for damages filed by Daniel Patrick Trudell last month.

“Due to heavy load of work compounded by the need to study and verify medical records undersigned is constrained to ask for an extension,” the pleading read.

Geotina also cited the Christmas holiday, but he clarified that the motion was filed “in good faith with no intention to cause delay.”

Macabaya, of the RTC branch 5, granted Geotina’s motion for extension.

RTC Branch 5 clerk of court Manuel Nollora earlier gave Dr. John Mata and the hospital 15 days to answer the civil complaint.

Nollora, a lawyer, reminded the hospital to refrain from filing a motion to dismiss and instead, state its ground for dismissal when they answer the petition.

“If you fail to answer within the time fixed, the plaintiff will take judgment by default and may grant the relief applied for in the complaint,” the RTC summons read.

Trudell sued Mata and the hospital after the doctor allegedly failed to remove his entire prostate gland and the tissues surrounding the gland during the surgery meant to stop the spread of cancer cells.

“He (Dr. Mata) utterly failed to completely perform what he was engaged to do... the proper treatment was administered incorrectly and wanting,” read Trudell’s complaint prepared by his lawyer, James Benedict Florido.

In his letter-reply dated Aug. 5, Mata denied committing medical negligence and called Trudell’s complaint as “vague speculation.”

The doctor, through the hospital’s lawyer Marc Achilles Phua, said Trudell did not return to the hospital for his follow-up checkup barely two years after the surgery.

Phua, who is also a doctor, said Trudell actually “improved” when was discharged from the hospital after his surgery.

The American suffered from recurring urinary tract infection, a complication which cannot be attributed to his surgery, said Phua.

Malpractice

The lawyer-doctor said Mata is a “well-trained urologist” in Cebu and had never committed medical malpractice.

In his complaint, Trudell, of Liloan town, Cebu, said he discovered he has prostate cancer after undergoing a prostate core biopsy at Cebu Doctor’s University last Aug. 17, 2010.

Last Nov. 26, 2011, he underwent a radiation therapy at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manila.

But it failed to lower the prostate specific antigen levels, so Trudell sought treatment at the hospital.

Trudell accused Mata of failing to perform due negligence and ordinary prudence required of him as a doctor of medicine.

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