Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is not the only famous accused who has colitis; the other inmate is even held in a regular jail cell and not in a hospital room.
A week before Mrs. Arroyo, now Pampanga representative, was diagnosed with the ailment, road rage suspect Jason Ivler was found to have a form of this intestinal inflammation due to his colostomy.
In a Nov. 15 note to a Quezon City court, Dr. Romeo Abary said the 29-year-old accused, treated on an out-patient basis, was shown to have diversion colitis.
Arroyo is afflicted with an unspecified form of colitis as well. She is still confined at the posh St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.
On the other hand, Ivler goes for check-ups at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City only on orders of a Quezon City court and is always whisked back to his jail cell.
Heavy guard
Ivler is under heavy guard at the Special Intensive Care Area of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
For her part, the former president is now under custody of the Southern Police District albeit recuperating at the SLMC’s presidential suite and not a regular jail cell.
Abary, a surgeon affiliated with the QMMC, had testified before Judge Luisito Cortez of Regional Trial Court Branch 84 that colitis, or inflammation of the colon, is a general term and has many forms.
The physician recommended the reversal of Ivler’s colostomy following an inflammation in the colon which is suspected to have been caused, in part, by the colostomy.
The colostomy, done after Ivler’s intestines were damaged in a shootout, allows him to defecate through a bag attached to his stomach and not through his anus.
In his testimony last month, Abary said Ivler appears to be suffering from “diversion colitis.”
He defined this particular form of colitis to be the inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, caused by the deprivation of nutrients in the lining of the discontinued tract.
Reversal
The doctor explained that by performing a reversal of the colostomy, the infection may be resolved.
The colitis was discovered after doctors performed a colonoscopy on Ivler, in which a camera is inserted into the anus to probe the intestines.
This is the same procedure done on Arroyo after the former president complained of diarrhea since the afternoon of Nov. 25. She was given antibiotics through intravenous drip to combat the ailment.
The bouts of diarrhea were accompanied by crampy abdominal pain. It was found that Arroyo was also suffering from colitis as well.
Her legal counsels have cited her colitis as a justification for delaying her transfer to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center to Quezon City, at least until the colitis subsides.