VMMC clarifies: No recommendation for surgery on GMA

MANILA, Philippines - The director of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) yesterday clarified that its medical team did not recommend any surgery on detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Dr. Nona Legaspi came out with the statement following pronouncements from Arroyo’s spokesperson Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn and ally House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez that the Pampanga lawmaker may need another risky surgery.

Horn and Suarez had said that the condition of Arroyo’s neck bones remains unstable.

“There is no recommendation that ever came from our medical team on such procedure,” Legaspi said.

“There is no such recommendation to perform surgery on her (Arroyo),” the VMMC director said.

Arroyo, who is facing electoral sabotage charges before a Pasay court, is under hospital arrest at VMMC’s presidential suite.

Reacting to the published report, Legaspi said that what the VMMC medical team attending to Arroyo has recommended is the continuance of her physical therapy.

Horn and Suarez had said Arroyo’s doctors would have to make more visits and possibly conduct more tests on her before deciding if she needs to undergo a fourth operation on her cervical spine.

Horn claimed one of the VMMC consultants, Dr. Antonio Sison, a distant relative of Arroyo, said the Pampanga lawmaker barely recovered since her last surgery in August at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

The 64-year-old former president first underwent surgery in July to stabilize her deteriorating cervical spine with titanium implants.

A few days following this, doctors found out that the implants were dislodged and decided that another operation should be done to correct it.

The second surgery was aborted when doctors saw that there was an infection. On the third surgery in August, surgeons added more implants and placed bone grafts taken from her hipbone.

Arroyo attempted to seek treatment in Singapore after the Supreme Court lifted the travel ban against her in November, but she was barred from leaving by the Bureau of Immigration and placed under arrest a few days later, following the filing of the electoral sabotage case.