KatCarney

Thursday, May 25, 2006
Medical center disciplines med tech
By Victor L. Camion

THE Silliman University Medical Center Foundation Inc. (SUMCFI) has placed on "appropriate disciplinary process" one of its medical technologists accused by a housewife of alleged discourtesy on her miscarried fetus, which she brought to the hospital for biopsy last May 9.

"I wish to assure you that whatever discourtesy or insensitivity your client may have felt from the SUMCFI employee has not been, is not, and will not be tolerated by the administration," said SUMCFI president Roberto Montebon.

Montebon issued the statement in his letter-reply dated May 15 to Joel Obar, the counsel of complainant Olga Lucia Alinas-Uy.

Uy has accused SUMCFI medical technologist Dexter Dy of discourtesy.

Montebon did not say if SUMCFI and Dy would accept Uy's request to make a public apology and accept responsibility for the actions of their employee.

He said Dy was being subject to the appropriate disciplinary process of the institution as contained in its Code of Employee Discipline.

Sun.Star sources claim the medical technologist has been fired from service.

"We in the SUMCFI are committed to the basic notion that all persons who seek medical attention in, or simply visit, the hospital deserve a wholesome treatment by our employees and staff as befits any human individual," Montebon said in the same letter.

He added, "It is the mission and goal of SUMCFI to always provide a caring and compassionate service to the public."

Infertility problem

Uy said she has a condition known as polycystic ovaries syndrome (PCOS), a condition that could not make her pregnant as easily as other women.

But, she had one successful pregnancy and now has a six-year-old daughter.

Following a round of fertility treatment in December last year and last January, she discovered last April 26 that she was pregnant.

Less than a month later, though, she had a miscarriage. To find out what went wrong, she placed the fetus in a small plastic-covered container and took it around 11:00 a.m. last May 9 to the SUMCFI laboratory for biopsy.

Uy said she handed the container to the attending medical technician, whom she later learned was Dy, after the latter suggested he would put formalin into it.

The housewife said she was aghast when Dy, after leaving the reception area and handing the cup over to the janitor said, "o, ihi-i ni (Pee on it)."

"I could hardly believe that somebody would treat my dead little one with such cruel mockery. I was outraged and infuriated over the insult hurled at my personal tragedy. I was completely crushed when an uncaring, callous, uncompassionate and cold member of the medical profession carelessly trampled over my grief and my loss, " Uy said in an open letter to Sun.Star Dumaguete.

She said that although the fetus was dead, it deserves respect.

"My husband and I wanted that baby so much and losing our little one broke my heart," Uy said, adding, "I am devastated and I am great pain."

Cruelty

In his letter to Montebon, Obar stressed the mere mention of "ihi-i na (pee on it)" was not only discourteous.

"It was cruelty at its best and ignominy at its worse," he said.

Obar said the medical center should not escape liability and make a childish excuse.

He appealed to the hospital administration to adopt a "values-development-program" for both management and staff, issue a public apology from the hospital's board of trustees, and to post prominent signs in the hospital premises and in all hospital rooms urging their clients to report of any inappropriate behavior that they may encounter from any hospital personnel.

The complainant said her experience might open the way for change among hospital personnel not only in SUMCFI but also in other hospitals, especially those ran by the government.

She clarified that she was not interested to file any criminal charge against anybody, including Dy.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dum....med.tech.html

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