The 28-year-old woman who performed a Cesarean section on herself inside her house in Sta. Mesa, Manila, last week is teetering on the brink of insanity.
This was the diagnosis of a psychiatrist who was asked by the police to determine the mental state of the eight-month pregnant woman who cut herself open with a kitchen knife without any anesthesia, took her baby out of her womb and then tried to sew her wound shut.
The baby was born alive but died of neglect after her mother placed her in a blanket and forgot all about her. The woman was later found by an aunt who took her to a hospital where doctors closed her wound.
In her report, Sta. Ana District Hospital psychiatrist Dr. Ann Joy Aguadera said that the woman, whose husband left her last year, was suffering from depression while her mental condition was bordering on psychosis.
Aguadera advised authorities against further interviewing the woman who was facing abortion charges, saying she could sink deeper into depression if she was forced to recount what she went through.
This was supported by hospital director Dr. Mario Lato who told the Inquirer that a trigger—whether recalling a previous experience or being given new information—could drive the woman mad.
“The report states that [she] is [a] borderline [case]. Her depression was what apparently drove her to undertake the abortion. A trigger would take her over the edge,” Lato said.
But despite her condition, the woman could now go home although her discharge would have to be approved by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Manila police as she has to face the consequence of her action, he added.
He further revealed that the woman’s family had expressed anger over what they called a violation of their kin’s right to privacy as a hospital patient.
“But we explained that we have done our best to stay silent about the case and … keep [it] confidential by not issuing detailed medical bulletins on her treatment. We have no control over the information the media gets outside our medical facility,” Lato told the Inquirer.
Manila police homicide investigators were also eyeing the filing of an obstruction of justice charge against the woman’s aunt and uncle.
“They have been hostile to our [investigators] and have even denied that [there was] an abortion,” MPD homicide section chief Senior Insp. Joselito de Ocampo said.
He noted that during questioning, the couple claimed that the baby was buried at Manila North Cemetery.
“They lied about that,” he said. “We were able to exhume the body [from] a vacant lot some 800 meters away from their house in Sta. Mesa.”