Senator Risa Hontiveros INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
BACOLOD CITY — Sen. Risa Hontiveros has asked the Department of Health to investigate a hospital in Bacolod City for alleged medical negligence, which led to the death of a woman who was pregnant with twins.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hontiveros, chair of the Senate committee on health and demography, said she would closely coordinate with the DOH to determine what really happened to Mary Joy Geronca, 21.
She also expressed alarm over what she said had been a growing number of cases of medical negligence and hospitals refusing emergency medical care to patients.
Based on the initial field investigation conducted by the office of Hontiveros, Geronca, who was eight months pregnant with twins, was rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital on Jan. 17 because she had difficulty breathing.
But she was asked to line up for 30 minutes in the emergency room despite her condition, the statement said. After finally being admitted to the emergency room, her partner, Joshua Canete, was surprised to see doctors trying to revive Geronca, it added.
The death of Geronca and her unborn twins is also being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation in Bacolod City.
Dr. Julius Drilon, CLMMRH chief, said the hospital management would face any investigation since no negligence was committed. He said Geronca was referred to the CLMMRH on Dec. 18 by a lying-in clinic because twin pregnancies were high risks. Geronca, who was accompanied by her sister, had difficulty breathing and was then advised that she needed to be admitted but she refused, he said.
He said that on January 16, Geronca was brought to the emergency room of the CLMMRH but her twins were dead inside her womb. “By the time she arrived at the CLMMRH, Geronca was suffering from an advanced stage of eclampsia and there was nothing the hospital could do to save her,” he said. Geronca died the next day. SFM/rga