Court Oks deal over patient’s death at VSMMC

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court in Cebu City has approved the compromise agreement  entered into by a surgeon at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the father of a patient who died while undergoing  surgery in 2011.

RTC Judge Simeon Dumdum approved the agreement entered into by Dr. Mary Joy Villalon and Davin Sedeño, father of a 3-year-old boy who died in September 2011 after he underwent three major operations.

Dumdum said the does not see any objectionable and contrary to law in the provisions of the agreement. Both parties agreed to settle the dispute amicably. Sedeño agreed to drop the charges he filed before the Professional Regulations  Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman against Villalon.

Villalon, on the hand, agreed to buy a memorial lot at the Cebu South Memorial Gardens in Barangay Upper Mohon, Talisay City for the complainant’s son. She will also reimburse the expenses in the exhumation and the burial of Raven James Claros and to pay Sedeño P30,000 on installment bases.

Dumdum ordered both parties to adhere to the compromise agreement. The court also dismissed earlier the civil case for damages filed by Sedeño against Villalon and VSMMC medical director Dr. Gerardo Aquino for lack of cause of action.

Sedeño demanded P2.4 million damages against Villalon and Aquino, claiming that his son died because of the respondents’ negligence. The Office of the Solicitor General, which represented the hospital, moved for the dismissal of the case for being “patently unconsented.”

Dumdum dismissed the case with finality on October 9, 2012 on the ground that the complainant failed to state his cause of action. The complainant tried to file an amended petition but was also dismissed by the court.

Sedeño claimed that the respondents’ negligence resulted in the death of his son, Raven James Claros.

Raven underwent three major operations in September 2011. Raven was born with imperforate anus. He underwent colostomy surgery, imperforate anus surgery, and colostomy takedown surgery, but died after the operations. —/FPL (FREEMAN)