Newborn falls on floor after nurses ignore mom's appeal

COTABATO CITY (May29) – Leaders of Central Mindanao’s ethnic Teduray community wants the Department of Health (DOH) to immediately investigate on the seemingly accidental death of an infant in a public hospital due to negligence of nurses.

Marnilyn Galapin, 27, of Upi, Maguindanao told reporters nurses at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center virtually ignored her appeal, while at the emergency room, to attend to her because she was already about to deliver her child.

“Saka lang nila ako inasikaso nung napa-anak na ako at nahulog na ang batang aking iniluwal sa sahig na semento,” Galapin said.

The newly born infant died several hours later.

Galapin belongs to the non-Moro Teduray indigenous highland group in Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“Masakit itong aking karanasan,” she said.

Tribal leaders had told reporters they will ask help from ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman in seeking justice for Galapin and her child.

Dr. Helen Yambao, the chief of hospital, had told reporters the child was premature.

She said the male child did not die from the fall, but from his having been born prematurely.