CEBU CITY -- A P2.4-million damage suit has been filed in court against two doctors of a government-run hospital in this city over an alleged medical error that led to the death of a three-year-old two months ago.
The civil suit for damages, attorney’s fees and cost of suit was lodged before the Regional Trial Court last November 9 by the boy’s father from Barangay Lawaan I, Talisay City, against a medical officer of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
“The doctor’s negligence was the proximate cause of (victim) Raven’s death,” plaintiff Davin Sedeño said in his 10-page complaint. Sedeño also implicated the VSMMC chief.
Sedeño is the father of three-year-old Raven James Claros, who died on September 14, 2011 supposedly due to “pneumonia and dehydration.”
Raven was born on July 17, 2008 and was diagnosed with a birth defect called an “imperforate anus.”
Still of unknown cause, imperforate anus is a congenital defect in which the opening to the anus is missing or blocked, according to Wikipedia.
Raven subsequently had surgery called a colostomy, a procedure, according to Wikipedia, in which a stoma is formed by drawing the healthy end of the large intestine or colon through an incision in the anterior abdominal wall and suturing it into place.
The surgery succeeded.
But Raven had his colostomy takedown for a third time at the VSMMC.
Colostomy takedown, or colostomy reversal, according to the same online encyclopedia, is a reversal of the colostomy process by which the colon is reattached to the rectum or anus.
Raven had his consultation at the hospital on August 31 and September 7 before his surgery. The doctor assured the boy’s parents that colostomy takedown is “not a life-threatening surgery.”
The result of some series of tests was “normal” when Raven was set to be operated on September 12. He was “perfectly healthy and ready to be operated,” according to the charge sheet.
The doctor performed the surgical procedure on Raven on September 12 at 12:15 p.m. The procedure ended at 6:10 p.m. and Raven was brought to the recovery room.
The doctor then instructed the boy’s parents to monitor Raven’s stomach and prohibited the boy from taking solid foods, drink water or milk.
One physician checked the boy’s stomach and the latter did not complain of pain.
But at 11:30 a.m. of September 13, Raven complained of pain in his hand where the intravenous catheter was inserted.
Help
The boy’s father Davin called up the nurse’s station and the nurse-on-duty removed it from the boy’s hand and attempted to insert a new one.
But the nurse failed to insert a new intravenous catheter because she could not access a vein.
The boy’s father went back several times to the nurses’ station to find someone who could insert the catheter in his son’s hand, but none was available. The father was worried because the boy’s condition started to deteriorate.
The new intravenous catheter was inserted in the boy’s hand past 6 p.m. Raven’s health condition was worsening, but the doctor was nowhere to be found.
At 8 p.m., Raven suffered convulsions, but the boy’s father was only told by the nurse to wrap his son’s body. When the doctor arrived at 8 p.m., Raven was already unconscious and had difficulty breathing.
The boy’s father was told the patient needed a mechanical ventilator to help him breathe, but no ventilator was available for rent.
The doctor also instructed the boy’s father to buy some medicines, but these were left unused “despite the fact that Raven was already at the point of death.”
Around 10 p.m., the child’s father went to the doctor to inquire about the boy’s condition, but the physician refused to say anything.
Dead
At 2 a.m., another doctor pronounced Raven dead. The first doctor arrived at 2:10 a.m. and concluded that Raven died of pneumonia and dehydration since he did not receive intravenous fluids for the past seven hours -- from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
When the complainant requested a copy of his child’s death certificate, he was surprised to see that the doctor changed the patient’s cause of death.
The child’s father lamented that the doctor “did not exercise reasonable skill and care in treating Raven after the surgery.”
“Had she exercised reasonable degree of skill and care, Raven would still be alive today,” the boy’s father, Sedeño, lamented in his complaint.
Sedeño, through his counsel, Ademar Gabuya, asked the court to order the defendants to pay him the damages totaling to P2,454,600, which comprised P1,844,600 in actual and compensatory damages; P500,000 in moral damages; P100,000 in exemplary damages and P10,000 in attorney’s fees.
