Health chief faces graft for infants’ deaths

Three mothers and a party-list group filed a graft complaint yesterday against Health Secretary Francisco Duque and other health officials holding them responsible for the deaths of three infants who died of sepsis in a government hospital last October.

In their complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, Janice dela Cruz, Michele Ann Parungao and Grace Ojeda, along with party-list group Gabriela Women’s Party, said the hospital was dirty and poorly equipped and their infants were given poor attention.

They accused Duque and other health officials of covering up for the hospital staff.

Sought for comment, Duque insisted that their investigation found no evidence against the doctors and staff of the Department of Health-run Rizal Medical Center in Pasig City.

"We did our best. We did what we can do in investigating this incident. What we can do now is to defend ourselves," Duque told reporters.

Dela Cruz claimed in her complaint that Rizal Medical had had 28 deliveries on Oct. 4. Of that number, 15 developed sepsis. Nine of those infants, including her baby, Allysonne Jane, died.

Also accused with Duque, were members of the DOH fact-finding team that investigated the deaths: Aileen Riego-Javier, Gener Becina, Virgilio Castro, Abelardo Alera, and Ma. Carmen Buenaflor.

Also included were Eric Tayag, Jun Lopez, Divina Antonio, Rosario Pamintuan, Genesis Samonte, and Joy Pabellon, all members of the team from the National Epidemiology Center, which was tasked by the DOH to look into the deaths.

Dela Cruz stated in her complaint that she gave birth to a healthy baby girl at an "obscenely dirty" hospital on Oct. 4. She was discharged the following day.

Two days later, her baby developed fever and diarrhea. She brought her child to a pediatrician, who advised her to bring her to Rizal Medical because her baby has a complete medical record there.

"While at the RMC, I felt so helpless and forlorn since the doctors and staff of the said hospital not only gave me very little attention to the sufferings of my child, they repeatedly made mistake after mistake on the rare occasions they attended to my child causing severe bruising on my child’s hand from their repeated mistake in inserting an I.V. (intravenous) line on my child’s hand," Dela Cruz complained. Allysonne Jane died on Oct. 7 at 7:32 in the evening.

Two other mothers, Parungao and Ojeda, also made similar complaints.

Dela Cruz said Tayag and health officials concluded that the deaths were due to early onset or acute newborn sepsis despite a public apology from Rizal Medical hospital officials.

The fact-finding team, Dela Cruz lamented, also blamed the infants’ mothers for the deaths.

"In essence, the reports centered the blame on us parents by finding without basis that the sepsis that killed our babies was mother and not hospital-acquired," she said.

Dela Cruz accused the DOH of "bad faith and inexcusable negligence," saying Duque and other officials were quick to absolve the hospital staff.

She said the DOH probe was "conducted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross negligence intended to benefit the RMC and its officials and the respondents themselves as public officers tasked to monitor RMC and or prevent and or arrest the occurrence of deaths due to neo-natal sepsis."

The inquiry found that many of the mothers had fever, infections or other health problems that may have compromised their infants’ health even before birth.

"If the parents are not content with the findings, we respect that. I just feel sad because the fact-finding team members whom we only invited to help us in the investigation have also been charged," Duque said. — With Sheila Crisostomo