Lawyer got wrong doctor, doctor got wrong lawyer

All dentists must know how to pull-out teeth. No physician can be an obstetrician, ophthalmologist or ear-nose-throat specialist unless able to do surgeries. More so general, orthopedic, neuro, cardiothoracic, plastic and reconstructive surgeons.

They’re most alarmed by what befell bone surgeon Benigno Agbayani Jr. Ninety-five thousand other physicians fear that “injustice done to Dr. Iggy” could open the floodgates to malpractice suits that would inflate the cost of medical care. Not to mention, discourage entrants to the medical profession.

Convicted for an operation gone wrong, Dr. Iggy was jailed in May 2023 then died of heart attack five months later, Oct. 5. Congestion in the facility likely distressed him physically, psychologically, emotionally. He was 58.

Lawyer Saul Hofileña had sued Dr. Iggy in 2006 for reckless imprudence resulting to serious physical injuries. Allegedly the arthroscope that Dr. Iggy used on his left knee was unsterilized, thus causing pus and pain.

Hofileña had to be operated on thrice by a dozen doctors in another hospital: one to remove the knee infection, another to fix the wrist that broke from using a cane, the last to further remove infection. He was immobilized for a month and spent two years on wheelchair, affecting his income.

The case dragged on for nearly 18 years. The Manila Metropolitan Trial Court in July 2013 convicted Dr. Iggy: Res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself); complainant Hofileña underwent surgery and left with an infection.

Dr. Iggy appealed to the Regional Trial Court in September. The timeline is relevant:

• On Oct. 11, 2013 the RTC ordered him to file an appeal memo within 15 days. Receiving it on Nov. 19, he thus had until Dec. 4 to do so.

• Instead of such memo, Dr. Iggy’s lawyer, due to “heavy workload,” filed a motion for 15-day extension. The RTC granted it Dec. 16. The lawyer had until Dec. 19 to fulfill but didn’t. Instead he filed for another extension till Jan. 3, 2014.

• On Dec. 23 the RTC dismissed Dr. Iggy’s appeal for breaching the reglementary period. The lawyer again moved for reconsideration, which the RTC denied on Feb. 26, 2014.

Dr. Iggy ran to the Court of Appeals but the justices couldn’t evaluate his case. His lawyer had failed to submit 11 pertinent MeTC and RTC filings.

The lawyer admitted his lapse, yet still didn’t submit five of the documents. He stressed Dr. Iggy’s right to appeal. The CA reminded that appeal was a statutory privilege which may be exercised only in the manner and provisions of law.

Dr. Iggy questioned the CA ruling before the Supreme Court. On June 23, 2021 the SC upheld the CA’s adherence to court rules.

Reminding that it is not a trier of facts, the SC nixed the lawyer’s point that Dr. Iggy’s guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Still, it shortened Dr. Iggy’s sentence to one year and one day from the MeTC’s two years and one day.

Detained at the Manila jail, Dr. Iggy insisted on his innocence. His sudden demise agitated medical professionals. Till his last week he kept warning medical groups about ambulance-chasers and vindictive patients preying on them. Doctors would be forced to take out medical insurance and impose more lab works on patients, all of which would lead to higher professional fees and consultation costs.

Not a few doctors now express wariness to take on lawyers and relatives as patients. Some instruct clinic aides to screen for potential “troublemaking patients.”

Not only unsterilized instruments can cause infections, doctors stress. There are also the possibilities of patients’ poor immunity and post-op carelessness. In Hofileña’s case, they say, he went to other doctors, which meant a cut in original doctor-patient relations.

Sought for his side early November, Hofileña declined in deference to the deceased family’s 40-day mourning. “I’ve forgotten about that criminal case. After I testified at the MeTC, I let the state prosecutor handle it because I also filed a civil-damage suit,” was all he told this column.

“My wife is a physician. Her parents and three siblings are physicians. I’m indebted to the physicians who removed my infection,” he added.

Speaking for Hofileña, Atty. Aldrin Quintana seeks to allay doctors’ fears: “The SC decision did not set precedent and will not affect doctors since the case is peculiar to Dr. Agbayani alone. This is because the ruling is based on the negligence of Dr. Agbayani’s counsel which led to the dismissal of Dr. Agbayani’s petition in the CA.

“A decision of the MeTC, the lowest in the judicial totem pole, does not set precedents. Only the SC can set binding precedents when it renders decisions. Not a trier of facts, the SC didn’t rule on the issues in the MeTC.”

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