Lease on life

For those who remember the “Black Suede scandal”  in 2007, the   Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center won notoriety for the the bizarre case of a gay patient who had a deodorant can removed from his rectum.
It would have remained a private embarrassment if not for a cell phone video taken of the procedure that was uploaded on the Internet.
The medical staff was sanctioned,  and the hospital had to live with the shame.
The state-run hopsital in Cebu City had a golden opportunity to redeem itself with Monday’s sucessful charity operation of a 13-year-old girl with a hole in her heart.
The open heart surgery saved her life and was a professional  coup.
The Department of Health and VSMMC celebrated the case as the first open heart surgery done in a government hospital in Central Visayas.

Cristabel Boybantin, who is on her way to recovery, may be the hospital’s redemption from  a spotty past.

Some of the surgeons who operated on her have  successful private practices but serve as  P1-a-year consultants   in the government hospital.

It’s good to know that doctors of that caliber  volunteer for public duty  in VSMMC whether or not the spotlight is on.

The  teenager from Naga City had no means of affording a P700,000 operation.    Her loving parents were persistent in hoping for a solution.

In the end, she was the lucky choice from a long list of indigent patients who waited in the records of Perpetual Succour Hospital because VSMMC was looking for a case just like hers.

When told they would operate on the child free of charge, the parents , a housewife and a truck driver,  placed their trust in the cardiac surgeons who performed the operation.

It will take many days before Cristabel can receive visitors, outside of her parents, in a closely guarded room but we all hope for her full recovery.

The surgery will open doors for other indigent patients suffering from similar ailments.

If anything, the operation showed that expertise and quality care is available for the poor in a government hospital.

We hope that state funding for VSMMC , which serves patients from Cebu province and outlying areas, continues in a steady stream to benefit those who need medical attention but have little to pay for it.

Like Cristabel’s case, government resources, when judiciously used, provide a lease on life.

The challenge remains for the institution to make medical treatment within reach of the  greater majority.