Doc gets benefits earlier denied her

A doctor who used to work with a government hospital in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, before she was afflicted with chronic renal failure has successfully convinced the Supreme Court that she is entitled to receive benefits from the government contrary to the opinion of the Employees Compensation Commission.

The SC's first division presided by Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban has ruled in favor of petitioner Rhoda Castor-Garupa by reversing the decision of the Employees Compensation Commission and Court of Appeals, then ordered the ECC to pay Castor-Garupa all the benefits intended for her.

According to the Supreme Court, "workers, whose capabilities have been diminished, if not completely impaired, as a consequence of their service, ought to be given benefits they deserve under the law. Compassion for them is not a dole-out, but a right."

Castor-Garupa joined the government service on January 1, 1979 as a resident physician of the 50-bed capacity Bayawan District Hospital until she was promoted as Medical Officer 3 in 1990.

In 1994, Castor-Garupa started to experience the symptoms of having a high blood pressure. Four years later, she started to suffer from extreme fatigue and lost her appetite causing her to lose weight.

Her husband brought her here where doctors of a private hospital diagnosed her illness as chronic renal failure secondary to intrinsic renal disease. She underwent a hemodialysis twice a week.

She was transferred to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and was diagnosed as suffering from end-stage renal disease secondary to chronic glomerulonephritis. In 1999, she underwent a kidney transplant with her brother as the donor.

When Castor-Garupa filed with the Government Service Insurance System a claim for compensation benefits, the GSIS denied her request saying that her illness is not among those diseases enumerated under the Employees Compensation Act.

The ECC and the Court of Appeals also rejected her request because Castor-Garupa reportedly failed to prove that the illness was caused by employment and that working conditions increase the risk of contracting the disease.

But the doctor argued that she was afflicted with the disease during her employment with the Bayawan District Hospital and that there is substantial evidence to sustain that her employment increased the risk of contracting the illness.

The Supreme Court ruled, "as a doctor who was in direct contact with patients, she was more exposed to all kinds of germs and bacteria, thus increasing the risk of contracting glomerulonephritis." - Rene U. Borromeo