Autopsy of victim ‘inconclusive’

The death of a Filipina migrant worker while undergoing liposuction at a Quezon City clinic remains a mystery after the autopsy report on the victim still did not provide a clue as to what caused her death during the operation.

While a case has been filed against three doctors and three nurses of the Borough Medical Care Institute in Eastwood, Quezon City; the respondents were eventually released hours after they were taken into custody because the homicide case could still be considered “incomplete,” said Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District.

Holding the respondents in custody despite this would make the police liable for arbitrary detention, Mabanag said.

Mabanag told reporters that doctors Peregrino Lorenzo, Joel Unson and Mylene Arizala-Tan and nurses Djoanah Melissa Cave, Fionna Francisco and Joey Budomo were released from police custody at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday

While the case filed against them for the death of Mary Jane Arciaga-Pereira already underwent inquest proceedings, the prosecutor was still waiting for a “histopathological exam” on the patient.      – Reinir Padua