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A P7 million damage suit was filed in court by a couple who sued two doctors and a private hospital in Cebu City for malpractice.
The complaint was filed by Katrina Morada-Poca, who wanted to bear a child, but ended up going through five operations in a month in Cebu Doctor's University Hospital after a medical procedure in her abdomen called a video-laparoscopy led to other complications that almost killed her.
Other complainants were her husband, Roberto Rama Poca and her mother, lawyer Alice Canoy-Morada. Katrina is a Globe Telecom executive officer who lives with her husband in the Rama Compound in barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City.
Named respondents were the hospital and two of their physicians, Dr. Marivic Tan, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and Dr. Manual Villamor, a surgeon.
Tan, in a phone interview, said she would answer the charges in the ?right venue? after she gets a copy of the complaint.
She said while the doctors were hesitant to comment, they were certain that many statements about the events surrounding the case were distorted allegations that ?may strongly impact on the way doctors will perceive patients.
?Defensive and uncompassionate medicine could very well be the effect. And our doctors would be wary about treating difficult patients,? she said.
Cornelio Mercado, the hospital?s legal counsel, told Cebu Daily News he had to study the case first before commenting. He said he was willing to extend legal assistance to the two doctors.
In the complaint, Katrina said she and her husband long desired to have a baby of their own and availed of in-vitro fertilization in May 2008, where eggs from her ovary were fertilized with sperm of her husband to be implanted in her womb.
Dr. Tan, her primary physician, told her a water-filled mass was found in her left fallopian tube and had to be removed to avoid affecting the implantation.
On her advice, Katrina underwent a video-laparascopy, an operation that involved making small incisions in the abdomen guided by a video monitor, on June 11, 2008.
Katrina said she was assured it was a minor operation that would take 45 minutes to an hour. She signed a consent form for the video-laparascopy. She was given anesthesia and was unconscious during the procedure.
The operation took five hours. When she woke up, her left fallopian tube had been removed.
The complainant said Dr. Tan had to hastily call in a surgeon, Dr. Villamor after ?finally admitting the job was beyond her competence, skill, training and expertise.?
In the next few weeks, Katrina was taken to the Intensive Care Unit and was suffering various adverse conditions ? difficulty breathing, toxins in her body traced to a punctured large intestine, urine accumulating in her lungs and abdomen, and a cut ureter, according to the complaint.
When she checked out on July 9, 2008, ?she was only a ghost of her old self and was practically skin and bones.? She had to return to the hospital in November for a fifth operation to further repair damages caused to her body and health.
She blamed ?gross negligence? of the two doctors.
Her hospitalization involved about 20 physicians and medical bills of more than P2 million.
The complainants, through lawyer Deolito Alvarez, asked the court to order the defendants to pay P2.5 million for actual damages, P5.5 million for moral damages, P1 million for exemplary damages and P300,000 for litigation expenses.
