CEBU CITY—The family of the late Barili, Cebu mayor Marlon Garcia has filed a criminal complaint against two doctors and the management of a private hospital here where the town mayor and his sibling Nelson died last September.
Through Winston Garcia, brother of Marlon, the Garcia family filed a criminal complaint for medical negligence “under Title 19 of the Revised Penal Code and other related penal legislation against Dr. Elfeda Hernandez, Dr. Yvonne Bettina Montejo and the Chong Hua Hospital.
“The complaint is the first of the series of complaints that the family is planning to file against the two doctors and the hospital not only for the death of Marlon Garcia but also for the death of Nelson Garcia. They are just awaiting the final report of the findings of medical experts looking into the death of Nelson before they take action on his death,” said the family’s legal counsel Joan Largo in a press briefing Wednesday.
Present in the press conference were Garcia siblings Winston, Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, Cebu Third District Representative Pablo John Garcia, Byron Garcia and their father, former Cebu Governor and House Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia.
The filing of charges against the two doctors and the hospital stemmed from the findings of Dr. Ravi Durvasula, a licensed physician and professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases and the chairman of the Department of Medicine of the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, USA.
The judicial affidavit of Durvasula was verified and attested to before the City Prosecutor’s Office via video call.
Pablo John explained that they tapped Durvasula since it would be difficult to tap local doctors to look into the case of his siblings.
“I am speaking as a lawyer. In our country, based on my experience, it is difficult to let a doctor testify against a fellow doctor. They tend to stand by their colleagues right or wrong,” Pablo John said.
Nelson and Marlon were confined at Chong Hua Hospital after testing positive for coronavirus disease. They died last September 1 and 6, respectively.
The Garcia family believed that “proper standard of care and treatment” on Marlon and Nelson were “disregarded and/or overlooked in the selfish desire of the respondent physicians and the hospital to maximize profits for themselves.” Marlon’s hospital bills reached P5.2 million, while Nelson was billed P3.8.
The Garcias described the hospital bills as “scandalous.”
“I underwent a kidney transplant, I spent three weeks in an executive suite at St. Luke’s Hospital and I was only billed P2.5 million and that already included (the amount) for the kidney donor,” said Winston.
As chairman of the CFI Cooperative, Winston discouraged their members from going to Chong Hua “to avoid suffering the same fate that we suffered.”
Winston announced that from temporary suspension, the CFI has permanently stopped the accreditation of Chong Hua.
“To stop this greedy desire to maximize profit, I am telling our members to stop going to Chong Hua,” Winston said.
Gwen recalled that their brothers were already well and had wanted to go home but were prevented by the doctors.
Prior to his death, Marlon was already signing vouchers of the payroll of some personnel in Barili, said Gwen.
“The laboratory results did not match the conditions of the patients,” said Gwen as she cited the findings of Durvasula.
Durvasula’s findings showed “lack of observance of standard care and procedure, employment of highly questionable and unnecessary laboratory tests and treatments and exaggerated or unsupported laboratory results of the death patient Marlon F. Garcia.”
As the governor of Cebu, warned Cebuanos of patronizing the private hospital.
“Three of my brothers got COVID-19. Marlon and Nelson went to Chong Hua and died. My other brother (Pablo John) stayed at home and he is alive. If that is not enough warning, I don’t know what is,” said Gwen.