Trauma team assists Ultra stampede victims

A 10-man psychosocial team from the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) arrived at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) office yesterday to render assistance to the Ultra stampede victims still traumatized by the Feb. 4 incident.

NCMH nurse Thelma Barrera said their team, composed of nurses, psychologists and social workers, said they would be working with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), which is mainly providing legal assistance to the victims.

"We were invited to conduct a debriefing or ‘unloading of feelings’ for people affected by the tragedy," Barrera said.

She said that without treatment, they could suffer depression, post traumatic stress and psycho-traumatic disorders.

Out of the 200 stampede victims who consulted with the VACC, 100 suffered trauma.

However, only two are classified with severe bouts of trauma with symptoms such as hallucinations, sleeplessness, and severe anxiety.

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN lead counsel Regis Puno, of the Puno and Puno law offices, said even production staff of the game show Wowowee have had difficulty coping with the situation.

"We interviewed the production staff. After the incident, some were in shock. Trauma counseling was also done. Tulad ng tulong sa victims, may tulong din sa staff," Puno said.

He said this was one of the reasons why they had asked the NBI-NCR Regional Director Ruel Lasala to defer the scheduled interview of the 12 ABS-CBN officials and Wowowee organizers, whom the bureau summoned last week.

Puno asked Lasala to give them a week to present their statements, saying that the subpoenas only arrived last Feb. 23 and 24 and recent political events had prevented them to meet with their clients.

Meanwhile, Lasala said that since they began the investigation into the stampede, operational costs have reached more than P200,000.

They had to pay for the photocopies of most medical certificates of the 900 victims. Each certificate costs P80.