Wrong meds tagged in woman’s death

CEBU CITY—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Department of Health (DOH) are investigating the death of a 40-year-old woman who was allegedly given wrong medication by a government hospital in Mandaue City, Cebu province.

The investigation stemmed from the complaint filed by Cesar Coliflores, husband of Jocelyn, who died on Jan. 2 at the Mandaue City Hospital, a facility run and managed by the Mandaue City government.

Arvin Odron, CHR Central Visayas officer in charge, said the CHR would look into the circumstances behind Jocelyn’s death to determine if her rights had been violated.

He said he also referred the case to the DOH-Central Visayas because CHR doesn’t have the mandate to investigate medical malpractice.

Elizabeth Tabasa, acting regional DOH chief, said the DOH would create a fact-finding committee to determine if the hospital committed lapses.

She, however, said the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), not the DOH, has the mandate to look into medical malpractice cases.

The Mandaue City government assured the family that it was also investigating the case.

Coliflores, of Barangay Opao in Mandaue City, said his wife was admitted to the Mandaue City Hospital around 6 p.m. on Jan. 2 due to recurring fever.

At that time, Cesar was in Saudi Arabia where he worked as a driver. Jocelyn’s companion was her 8-year-old son.

Cesar recalled that at first, the hospital staff wouldn’t admit his wife because her fever and blood pressure were not high. But Jocelyn insisted that her fever had been on and off since Dec. 31, he added.

Cesar said he had been getting updates by phone on his wife’s condition.

Around 9 p.m. on Jan. 2, nurses injected 750-mg of Cefuroxime (Lasuzef) through her dextrose even if she had not undergone any laboratory test.

Thirty minutes later, Jocelyn started screaming in pain. She told her son to video her ordeal because she suspected that she had been given wrong medication.

In the three-minute video, Jocelyn kept waving her arms and seemed to be catching her breath.

The video went blank after 40 seconds. But in the audio, Jocelyn could be heard saying she knew that the medication given her was not appropriate since she used to work in a pharmacy.

The nurses tied her to the bed and injected her 50 milligrams of Diphenhydramine HCI (Soniphen), which is both an antihistamine and an anticholinergic.

Cesar called his wife around 10 p.m. and was told that hospital staffers were reviving her. His wife died at 10:45 p.m.

“Is there an illness where a patient dies after 30 minutes?” Cesar said.

He said he decided to file a complaint when he noticed the discrepancy between the results of the autopsy and the death certificate issued by the hospital.

The death certificate said Jocelyn died of “probable ruptured cerebral aneurysm” or a raptured vein in the brain.

The autopsy conducted by the police crime laboratory showed that Jocelyn died of “sudden cardiac death” with “left ventricular hypertrophy.”