11-year-old continues to hang on despite flat-lining five times

John Michael Selitona – one of the 16 people injured when a 10-wheeler truck crashed into a house and a computer shop in Barili town in southern Cebu – was almost pronounced dead five times yesterday.

But each time he flat-lined, John Michael would breathe again, the 11-year-old boy’s elder sister said yesterday.

“Gahapon pa gyud na siya. Kapila na na siya nga patay na gyud siya, giingon sa doctor, nya muginhawa man siyag balik,” Jessa Marie Selitona, told Cebu Daily News.

Two were killed in the crash after the 10-wheeler truch lost its brakes and rammed a motorcycle and a Multicab along the national highway of barangay Sta. Ana in Barili town. The truck careened into a computer shop and the living room of a house where 22-year-old Jennifer Martillan was breastfeeding her baby. Martillan died instantly and so was 11-year-old Anderson Jason Vergara who was pinned down while playing video games in the computer shop.

Most of the injured victims were children who were also inside the computer shop.

The driver of the truck, Adonis Quinanola, is under police custody and will be charged with reckless imprudence resulting to homicide, physical injuries and damage to property.

Dr. Carl Algulada, who is attending to John Michael at the surgical intensive care unit of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, said the boy’s heartbeat kept on stopping for a few minutes, leading them to believe that he was dead.

“Bati na man iyang kahimtang,” he said. (He is really in bad shape).

The doctor said the boy’s mother has already given them a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) clearance.

According to PubMed.gov, an online information resource maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the US National Library of Medicine, a DNR, sometimes called a “No Code”, is a legal order written either in the hospital or on a legal form to respect the wishes of a patient not to undergo CPR or advanced cardiac life support if their heart were to stop or they were to stop breathing.

A DNR does not affect any treatment other than that which would require intubation or CPR. Patients who are DNR can continue to get chemotherapy, antibiotics, dialysis, or any other appropriate treatments, the site said.

“Luoy na kaayo akong anak, magsige nag luha iyang mata,” the boy’s mother Maria Martha Selitona said.

(I pity my son. Tears would always well in his eyes.)

She said a representative of the truck’s owner, JAK Logistics Transport, had visited them and promised to pay for all their medical bills.

John Michael was among the critically wounded who were transferred to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center from the Barili District Hospital where the victims were rushed following the vehicular accident in Barili last Saturday.

John Clark Martillan, the three-month-old baby whose mother died from the accident, is still under observation after his X-ray results revealed that he is suffering from blunt abdominal trauma with a bruise in his stomach area. The baby is also suffering from a traumatic head injury.

“The CT scan revealed that he has a fractured occipital bone,” pediatric ward nurse Genaro Panares, Jr. told CDN yesterday afternoon.

Panares added that there is no need for a surgery for now since the baby is not in critical condition.

Of the nine victims who were taken to VSMMC, Joshua Michael Vergara, 14, and Roq Ace Vergara, 11, were discharged yesterday morning. /Justine L. Espina, STC Intern