Autopsy controversy: Cebu medico-legal officer quits

CEBU CITY — After 32 years in government service, medico-legal officer Jesus Cerna of the city police has tendered his resignation with the regional office of the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

In a letter to city police chief Cecil Ezra Sandalo the other day, Cerna cited delicadeza as the reason behind his resignation, especially now that his integrity as a medico-legal expert is being questioned.

Last Friday, councilor Gerardo Carillo called for an investigation against Cerna for allegedly entering false findings in his records regarding the death of 51-day-old Lorence Diether Kishi.

The baby’s parents, Daisuki and Loreta Kishi, brought their son to a private hospital last March 7 after Loreta found out that the baby was no longer moving after she fed him.

The baby died on arrival at the emergency room of the hospital.

Pediatrician Eduena Redulla, who examined the baby, subjected the baby to an X-ray examination because she doubted the real cause of death.

She later discovered that the baby had a skull fracture, a bruise on the left cheek, a laceration on the nose and deformity in the right lower leg.

Police medico-legal officer Nestor Sator, who conducted an autopsy last March 8, came up with the same results, adding that the contusions and fractures were possibly due to contact with hard objects.

Loreta earlier claimed that their son fell when her husband was bathing him. She added that the fracture in the baby’s leg might have been caused by her massages because the child was bow-legged.

A parricide case was eventually filed against the couple last Friday and they are now temporarily detained at the city police office.

Carillo said Cerna should be investigated because he reported findings without conducting an autopsy when the case is medico-legal in nature.

But in his letter to Sandalo, Cerna reiterated that his finding that the baby died of cardio-respiratory arrest secondary to broncho pneumonia was done in good faith and to the best of his ability.

He said he conducted only an external examination of the baby because there was no request for an autopsy from a competent authority.

He said the baby’s mother did not give her consent when told that the best way to determine the real cause of death was through an autopsy.

"Had I been told that the cause of death of the child was suspicious, I could have asked for an authority to conduct an autopsy… Conducting an autopsy without necessary permission or authority may hold the physician civilly and criminally liable under our laws," Cerna said.

He said Loreta only told him that the night before her son’s death, the baby developed high fever and had colds and occasional cough which, according to Cerna, appeared to be symptoms of broncho pneumonia.

Cerna said his resignation is meant to give way to an impartial investigation.

"I do not want it to be said later on in the event of my exoneration that the investigation was a whitewash because I influenced the results of the investigation," he said in his letter.

Meanwhile, Sandalo said he is still considering whether to ask the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to look into Cerna’s administrative liability now that the latter has resigned.

Sandalo said he felt bad for Cerna because they have been together many times in conducting autopsies in the mountains during the "Sparrow Unit" days.

In his 32 years in the service, Cerna said he has performed more or less 6,000 autopsies and has testified in court for more than a thousand criminal cases, for which he was named Outstanding Non-Uniformed PNP Personnel in 1982 and 1987.

Cerna, in an interview with radio station dyLA, admitted that the controversy has affected his work but that he harbors no grudge against anybody. — Freeman News Service