PERPETUAL Succour Hospital said it has “done no wrong” to an American who filed a P5.16-million damage suit over alleged medical malpractice.
The hospital filed its answer to the lawsuit filed by Daniel Patrick Trudell last December and cited its “good name and reputation.”
“Ostensibly, plaintiff (Trudell) acted in bad faith, is dishonest, or did not give defendants their due,” read the hospital’s answer signed by lawyers Jan Ralph Perez, Eduardo Conde, and Cornelio Mercado.
Trudell sued Dr. John 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.
Treatment
“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.
The lawyer-doctor said Mata is a “well-trained urologist” in Cebu and had not committed medical malpractice.
Trudell accused Mata of failing to observe ordinary prudence required of a doctor.
Replying to the complaint, the hospital lawyers argued that only physicians can practice medicine.
“Thus, it is absurd to assert that PSH performed ‘medical diagnosis and treatment. PSH has no business peering over the physicians’ shoulder during surgery,” the pleading read.