Doctors cleared of causing liposuction death as patient’s children drop case

MANILA, Philippines — Two doctors were cleared of causing the death of a 43-year-old female liposuction patient in 2019 as the woman’s children withdrew their complaint after a reevaluation of the incident.

Claudine Roura and Katrina Bulseco were cleared of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide in a resolution issued by the Office of the City Prosecutor in Makati.

The incident happened on July 3, 2019, when Nory Bobadilla of Binalbagan in Negros Occidental went to the Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting in Makati for liposuction. After being administered spinal anesthesia, the woman became unconscious and stopped breathing.

Roura and Bulseca, who administered the anesthesia, tried to revive the woman and then had her taken to the Parañaque Doctors Hospital.  The woman went into a coma at the hospital’s intensive care unit and died on July 6.

“In their joint affidavit of desistance, complainant and the other heirs of (the victim) said that after reevaluated the events that became the bases for the complaint, they realized that a mistake was committed in the filing of the complaint,” the order signed by Assistant Prosecutor Bernard Rosario said.

“They were convinced that the ‘unwanted and unforeseen complications suffered by (their) mother which eventually caused her death, was due to a confluence of unfortunate events (sic) beyond the control of the physicians’,” it added.

Initially, the children of the woman filed a complaint against the anesthesiologist, believing that the death of their mother was untimely as she was a healthy person. This was corroborated by the tests required before the liposuction was done.

“I believe there’s negligence on the part of the doctors who did the liposuction procedure on my mother,” one of the patient’s children, Sara, not her real name, said in her sworn affidavit. “She was very healthy before the surgery.”

However, it was revealed that the operation was called off after Bobadilla experienced discomfort and slight paralysis after receiving spinal anesthesia.

The prosecutor’s resolution also clarified that the filing of the case was circumstantial due to the incident — and it was further weakened by the affidavit of desistance.

“Consequently, this Office had no option but to grant the motion to withdraw the complaint incorporated in the Joint Affidavit of Desistance,” the resolution said.

Days after the patient’s death, authorities said that the Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting was ordered closed for operating without a valid business and mayor’s permits.

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