Napoles wants to have her cyst-removal surgery at St. Luke’s Taguig

Janet Lim-Napoles. Contributed Photo by Philippine National Police Public Information Office

MANILA, Philippines—Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, has asked the Makati Regional Trial Court to allow her to undergo surgery to remove her cyst in the uterus at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City and be confined in the same hospital afterward.

Napoles’ lawyers insisted on keeping Napoles at the St. Luke’s Medical Center anew, saying it has “the most advanced medical equipment in the country.”

In an 11-page motion filed on Monday afternoon, Napoles’ lawyers said that while her condition has not been declared life-threatening by the doctors of the Philippine National Police, Napoles must undergo surgery for the removal of the lump in the uterus.

“Failing in such could lead to a more serious health problem, which is earlier stated as hemorrhage or loss of blood resulting (in) anemia, which, in turn, is fatal,” the motion reads.

Last week, Napoles was brought to the PNP Hospital in Camp Crame to undergo at least eight tests, including transvaginal ultrasound and pap smear to determine if she had an ovarian cyst.

After a half-day hearing, the court allowed Napoles to be examined at the PNP hospital in Camp Crame, instead of the St. Luke’s Medical Center.

In a hearing on the motion for her medical examination last week, Dr. Ramon Elazegui, doctor of the Southern Luzon Hospital where the accused was rushed on October 24, 2013 due to severe abdominal pains, told Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati RTC Branch 150, that a CT-scan on Napoles found a cyst just beside the uterus, which could be an ovarian cyst.

He recommended further examination, including a transvaginal ultrasound.

Napoles, who has been detained at the Fort Sto. Domingo in Laguna since her surrender to authorities in September 2013, was reportedly complaining of profuse menstrual bleeding, “increasing pattern of abdominal pain, drastic weight loss, and intolerable and excruciating pain.”

Lawyers of Napoles said that after the medical exams at Camp Crame, its resident doctor Michelle Daguno validated the previous finding of Elazegui on the presence of a cyst on Napoles’ abdomen.

The PNP doctor likewise recommended that it to be removed through a surgery, Napoles’ lawyers said.

The lawyers insisted that the surgery and the post-operation confinement be done at the St. Luke’s since it had the facilities and technology to perform the “laparoscopic surgery” or a minimal invasive surgery, which the Camp Crame hospital lacked.

Napoles’ lawyers said that Dr. Elsie Badillo-Pascua of St. Luke’s Medical Center had the trust and confidence of the detainee in performing the medical procedure.

“It is the primordial right of every patient to choose the medical treatment she or she will undergo, the physicians who will conduct the procedure and the medical institution, which will provide the necessary treatment for his or her treatment,” he said.

Napoles has been detained at the police training camp in Laguna on serious illegal detention charges filed against her and her brother by her relative, Benhur Luy, who eventually blew the whistle on Napoles’ involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel scam. Her brother Reynald Lim remains at large and the Philippine National Police has offered a P5-million reward for his capture.

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