Tuburan doctor sacked

THE doctor accused of failing to immediately attend to a 3-year-old boy who eventually died after a near-drowning mishap in Tuburan town was ordered relieved from his post.

Aside from Dr. Jatuporn Vatanagul, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said the nurses on duty at the time of the incident will also be investigated.

Davide said he ordered the Integrated Provincial Health Officer Cynthia Genesolango to relieve Vatanagul even as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) started its own inquiry.

“These doctors who don’t attend to their patients must be held liable. If the doctor and nurses had responded immediately, natabang pa siguro to ang bata (the child would have been helped),” Davide told reporters yesterday.

A family beach outing in barangay Putat in Tuburan ended abruptly when Christian Lidres nearly drowned at 11:30 a.m. last Sunday.

The boy was brought to the Tuburan District Hospital at noon but died four hours later.

The Lidres family claimed that Dr. Vatanagul was asleep in his office, a charge he later denied.

Genesolango said the boy was supposed to be transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City but was not yet stable enough to be moved. Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos