By: Erik Espina
MY mother, blessedly 84 years old, is presently confined in a Cebu hospital, 11 days counting. She has Steven Johnson Syndrome as a whole-body allergic reaction to negligent prescription given by a supposedly respected “doktora.” A columnist friend in a different national broad-sheet warned me, “If I followed her advice, I would be dead today.” Consultations with Makati specialists commented “Why was the medicine prescribed to an elderly when this is for the young?”
Additional nightmare, when we informed them what hospital my mother was confined – they rolled their eyes and advised to transfer her. We had to intervene, eight days in her confinement where hydration is crucial, no intravenous line for dextrose or anti-biotic was initiated. Internal organs may become another complication due to this incompetence. No diet instructions or limitations were prescribed either.
Meaning this hospital served chicken, which my mother is also allergic to. We had to buy our own juicer for straw-feeding, medicines, to expedite the service etc. There was no “sense of urgency” from the doktora, and the nurses who seemed clueless and squeamish about helping the patient. Noticeably, there is no bedside and restroom “emergency clicker”.
Dial 272-273 for a patient in crisis, if you still can. No daily trash and room cleaning etc. Other patients also shared their unfortunate experiences. One from their Northern Hospital complained to me, their nurses seemed not to know what they were doing, to a doctor prescribing a medicine that worsened her mother’s condition and caused stomach bleeding; to “double billing of doctors, and procedures;” an American veteran with helper detained for the balance of an injection never administered.
An aunt who franchises her popular bakery, rang us from Leyte, “I almost died in that hospital. They gave me penicillin. I transferred immediately.” Several horror-stories but space limits. We are moving my mother. This hospital breast-beats, “We lead to Serve.” No wonder the ambulances are exposed to the elements, while the Mercedes Benz, Mustang etc.