GMA doctors postpone surgery

MANILA, Philippines - Doctors of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo postponed her third surgery, scheduled for today, after the former president developed a fever on Sunday night.

Her doctors at St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) in Taguig City clarified that the increase in temperature was not caused by infection based on “various tests” conducted on Arroyo.

“All said tests turned out to be negative. Hence she will be continually monitored,” Arroyo’s chief physician Juliet Gopez-Cervantes said in a statement.

She furthered clarified that “there is no contraindication to going ahead with the surgery (but) they want to make sure that the fever is completely gone before proceeding.”

Marilen Lagnition, SLMC’s vice president for corporate communication, could not say how high Arroyo’s temperature was, even as she declined to make any comment on her medical condition.

She told reporters that such update should come from Arroyo’s doctors.

In the statement, Cervantes said Arroyo “is able to talk, walk around, have her regular meals, watch tv, and she reads a lot.”

The statement did not say when the operation will push through “but (hopefully) it can still be done in the next few weeks.”

Cervantes said the decision to cancel the surgery was reached after a meeting between Arroyo’s family and her medical team on Monday morning.

Had it pushed through, it would have been Arroyo’s third spine surgery.

Arroyo’s first operation was on July 29, where four of her seven cervical vertebrae were replaced with bone substitutes and titanium implants.

She was readmitted a week after her release on Aug. 5 because the bone implants were “dislodged” due to an infection.

Last week, Cervantes said they found out that calcium problems – and not the infection – was the main cause of the implant displacement.

According to Cervantes, Arroyo is suffering from hypoparathyroidism, which caused her calcium level to decrease and her bones to weaken.

For the third surgery, doctors would have to get bone grafts from her pelvic bones, which will then be placed in a mesh to be attached to her cervical spine.

“Hopefully in the coming weeks there will be growth of bones in the cervical spine so we can remove already the halo vest,” Cervantes said.