Letter from a Reader: Family Wants Justice. Death of Pregnant Mother and Her Baby Due to Medical Malpractice

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Dear Fashion Pulis,

I am a 31 year-old mother. I wish to share through your blog the plight of my dear friend who suffered and died under medical malpractice at Mary Johnston Hospital (Tondo). She was 38 weeks pregnant with regular prenatal check ups, and generally had a healthy, normal pregnancy. Here is the sequence of events:

On March 23, she was 38 weeks pregnant – was admitted to Mary Johnston due to coughing and vomiting. Her cervix had also dilated by 3cm.

The next day, her dilation was not progressing, and cough was not improving as well. At this time, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and had fever. My friend discussed the option of delivering via caesarian section (CS) to her OB. However, the OB said that my friend could deliver normally when the infection and fever would have subsided. At this point, I got really worried. Although I do not have medical background, common sense dictates that the best option was to deliver the baby immediately and treat the mother afterwards. There were no other complications mentioned to the family.

March 24 – my friend was started on antibiotics to treat her pneumonia, no improvement so far.

March 25 – she was already given oxygen since she could not breath normally, couldn't even lie down as she felt congested. Her husband and mother pleaded with the OB to perform CS operation already to end her suffering. But again, the OB refused - reasoned out that patient needed to be treated first for her pneumonia and insisted the she could deliver normally after. This, still did not make sense to me.

Treatment for pneumonia went on but without improvement. In the middle of all this, as if to make matters worse, said  OB went on a medical leave herself because of an emergency operation done on her. Patient's case was thus transferred to a fellow OB.

Her bag of water broke at 12AM of March 29. My friend was already hallucinating at this time, perhaps due to infection and lack of oxygen. Still, there was no sense of urgency from the medical people involved, the CS operation was done close to 7 hours later. The baby was dead upon delivery! His death certificate indicates perinatal asphyxia ( inadequate intake of oxygen ) as the cause of death.

The mother’s battle continued after her baby’s death. She was still unconscious, and was put on respirator. We were told that her organs were failing. Her heart enlarged, and was not pumping blood normally. She had little to no blood pressure and her kidneys could not eliminate excess water. The next viable option then was to do emergency dialysis to help alleviate the situation. We were already panicking when the attending physician had the gall to ask us if we knew of any surgeon who could perform the procedure! The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism, she passed away on the same day at 9:43PM.

FP, my dear friend's family are in unspeakable pain and grief at this time having lost 2 family members. We appeal that through this letter, you can help us expose this horrible incident and make those irresponsible people pay for their appalling negligence! We need justice!

Respectfully, 

Melany

Note: Letter edited. Names of people involved were withheld to protect their interest. Fashion PULIS is open to the administration/management of Mary Johnston Hospital to air their side of the story.

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