Former president Arroyo to undergo therapy for pinched nerve

MANILA, Philippines—Former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is now confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City for cervical radiculopathy.

Elena Bautista-Horn, Arroyo’s spokesperson, said the disease was not life-threatening.

Horn said cervical radiculopathy, in layman’s term, is pinched root of nerve due to disc disease.

According to the website https://emedicine.medscape.com, cervical radiculopathy is a dysfunction of a nerve root of the cervical spine.

Horn could not say if this was the first time Arroyo experienced such a medical condition.

Arroyo postponed her scheduled June 17-18 meeting and press briefing with House reporters in the second district of Pampanga, which she represents, after complaining of severe pain in the neck in the morning.

Marilen Lagniton, St. Luke’s vice president for customer affairs, said Arroyo was being attended to by main physician Dr. Juliet Cervantes, a liver specialist, and co-managed by Dr. Mario Ver, an orthopedist.  St. Luke’s will issue a medical bulletin at 4:30 pm. Friday.

Lagniton said Arroyo would be discharged in the hospital in a few days to undergo physical therapy. “She just needs therapy and rest,” Horn said in a phone interview.

Horn said Arroyo still wanted to attend the 40th wedding anniversary of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on June 19.

Arroyo is scheduled to leave the country for Madrid, Spain, to attend the meeting of the International Commission against Death Penalty by the end of the month.