Hospital told to explain 'accidental' death of baby

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  – An irate North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang Sr. on Saturday called on the administration of a state-run hospital in Cotabato City to answer for the death of a newborn infant that fell on a concrete floor owing to the alleged negligence of nurses.

Piang, an ethnic Teduray chieftain, said he cannot accept the explanation of physician Helen Yambao, chief of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center (CRMC), that the child of Marilyn Galapin, 27, did not die from the accident, but for being been born prematurely.

Galapin, who is also a Teduray, resides at the town proper of North Cotabato, 32 kilometers southwest of Cotabato City.

The Galapin family, subsisting on rice and corn farming, had buried the dead infant boy in their frontyard at the center of a rice field in the west of North Upi.

Piang was a former member of the government panel that formulated, along with negotiators of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the wealth-and-power sharing annex to the GPH-MILF October 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro.

Piang said he would exhaust his political connections in seeking justice for the Galapins.

A pregnant Galapin was at the emergency room of the CRMC last week complaining of painful abdominal spasms, but was ignored by nurses who allegedly reprimanded her for being noisy in demanding medical attention.

“I was even told I should behave properly because I am not in a public market,” Galapin told reporters in Filipino.

Nurses only attended to Galapin when she gave birth to a male child that accidentally fell on the hospital’s concrete floor.

"Meron sanang nakasalo sa sanggol kung nabigyan siya ng sapat na attention," Piang said.

Galapin said the infant  cried while gasping for breath after the fall, but died several hours later.

Piang said the newborn would not have fallen into the floor if a nurse had provided proper attention.

Piang said the local government of North Upi will extend financial assistance to the Galapin family.