Senator Leila de Lima was discharged from the hospital on June 26 after undergoing major surgery.
“Discharged from the hospital yesterday. Still recovering from a major surgery. Still experiencing some pains but I feel generally fine. Maraming salamat po sa inyong mga dasal at malasakit (Thank you for your prayers and concern),” said De Lima in a handwritten note posted on Twitter.
De Lima was admitted at the Manila Doctors Hospital on June 20 after Muntinlupa courts granted her “extreme urgent motion for medical furlough” for her to undergo a major operation.
Based on the orders of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branches 204 and 256, which are handling the senator’s two drug cases, it was revealed that De Lima was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse stage 3 during her medical checkup last April 5 “and was advised to undergo vaginal hysterectomy with anterior and posterior colporrhaphy at the soonest possible time.”
Pelvic organ prolapse is “when the muscles and ligaments supporting a woman's pelvic organs weaken, the pelvic organs can drop lower in the pelvis, creating a bulge in the vagina (prolapse). Women most commonly develop pelvic organ prolapse years after childbirth, after a hysterectomy or after menopause,” according to the Mayo Clinic website.
Vaginal hysterectomy, meanwhile, “is a surgical procedure to remove the uterus through the vagina” while anterior and posterior colporrhaphy “is a surgical procedure to repair pelvic organ prolapse such as cystocele (prolapsed bladder) or rectocele (prolapsed rectum),” according to the University of Colorado website.
Stage 3 of the prolapse means that “pelvic floor organs have fallen to, or beyond the opening of the vagina,” according to the US-based National Association For Continence website.
In the order issued by Presiding Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara of the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204, Dr. Errol Santelices, the senator’s personal physician, recommended that considering that it will be a major surgery, her age, medical history, and overall health condition, De Lima should be confined for at least 120 hours, or five days, “in order to fully observe and evaluate the status of her recovery, and to assess if her heart condition is being affected” because she had a mild stroke in April 2021.
Alcantara granted De Lima’s request, writing in his order that “for medical and humanitarian considerations and given the urgency of the matter, the motion is hereby granted.”
Presiding Judge Romeo Buenaventura of the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 256 also granted the senator’s request and ordered the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame to “bring (the) accused to the Manila Doctors Hospital on June 19 to 23, 2022 for said medical procedure.”
After her discharge from the hospital, she was brought back to her detention facility in Camp Crame.