Staff committed lapses in dead baby’s case: VSMMC

LAPSES were committed by some personnel of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) who were involved in the Sept. 14 delivery of a dead baby whose head was “nearly decapitated.”

This is among the initial findings of the investigation that VSMMC is conducting on the incident.

Dr. Ramon Najarro, VSMMC pediatric division chief, told reporters yesterday that while they maintain that the hospital has no fault in the death of the baby of Renjie and Antonietta Torreon, they said that some of their personnel had committed lapses, particularly in terms of communication and following hospital protocol.

Najarro is part of an eightman fact-finding team investi- gating the incident.

Najarro said they also learned that there was a communication problem on the part of the doctors when they failed to inform Renjie and his mother that the baby was stillborn.

Najarro said that while Antonietta was informed about the baby’s death, their personnel committed a breach of protocol by not informing the next of kin.

He said that due to the busy nature of their work, there is a possibility that communication did not occur.

Lacking skills

“Maybe our residents lack communication skills so we are looking into that. And we have to understand the busy environment of the delivery and labor room, so this could compound matters,” Najarro added.

They also found that there was a lack of coordination among the medical, nursing and support staff in the disposal of the baby’s cadaver.

Given these initial results, officials proposed to issue a twomonth extension of the residency of the doctor involved. This means that the doctor could not proceed to the next level of the residency training until after the extension, which will also be evaluated.

Najarro also said they will conduct a comprehensive reorientation with all their staff on hospital policies and their respective roles in the hospital, and harmonize existing hospital procedures to avoid creating confusion.

Najarro said they are still continuing with their investigation on the baby’s death and have sought sworn statements from medical personnel involved in the incident.

He also maintained that the baby died even before he was delivered at the VSMMC or at the Eversley Child Sanitarium in Mandaue City, where Antonietta was first brought.

No cause yet

Najarro also could not confirm yet what actually caused the baby’s death, despite reports that the infant died due to a cord accident. He said they are consulting a medico legal to do this.

Meanwhile, VSMMC officials announced that the baby-dropping incident that occurred earlier this month has been settled.

Dr. Gerardo Aquino, VSMMC chief of hospital, said the settlement was made after they were able to explain the matter to the baby’s parents.

Aquino said that contrary to the claim of the parents, the baby was born in the labor room and not in the delivery room after the mother reportedly conducted a precipitate delivery.

While no “baby-dropping” occurred, sanctions were still imposed on the baby’s attending physician after no intervention was made to bring the mother to the delivery room.

Aquino said they recommended to extend the physician’s residency for a month as a sanction for what had happened.

But Aquino said that due to the number of patients they were handling at that time, there was a possibility that the baby’s mother was not immediately attended to.