Batangas: Luxe resorts, lousy hospitals

Everyone deserves a second chance. Yet if a medical emergency happens to you while you are on holiday in Batangas, you may not have the joy of having an extra breath.

It was about 9 p.m. on November 1, All Saints Day. My brother Ramon Diaz, the artist and sculptor, had been feeling tired all day. The discomfort of having a gaseous stomach kept him pacing. He thought it was indigestion because of the crispy pata he had the night before. It was going to be a long weekend so he hoped that his house in Calatagan would provide him the rest that he needed. He joined his visitors on the beach when suddenly he fell face forward onto the sand.

“Ramon! Ramon!” his wife, Silvana, shouted. She slapped him to try to revive him. A maid nearby ran and saw that his mouth was closed. From the maid’s experience with having an epileptic brother, she knew the first-aid technique for getting the mouth open.  Strong squeezes between the thumb and index finger released Ramon’s clamped mouth. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and gentle CPR did not bring breath back to his lifeless body.

His driver backed the Patrol car up to the beach. Ramon’s slumped body was loaded on while Silvana and the guest continued trying to resuscitate him. By this time, the family suspected a heart attack, so Silvana called her sister-in-law Ruby Roa. “Get oxygen. Go to the Calatagan clinic. Surely they will have decent first aid there.”

In times of emergency, it is better to have someone directing you where to go and what to do. First stop was the Calatagan clinic. “My veterinarian’s clinic is cleaner and better equipped,” thought Ramon’s daughter, Romina. Knowing that this clinic could not help them, Romina forced the orderly and a nurse to ride along with them in the car since the clinic personnel wanted to guard their one and only small oxygen tank. 

By this time, Ramon had started breathing. There were signs of life but without a doctor to help, Silvana was confused. “Head towards Manila,” she was instructed. Calatagan is at least three hours away from Manila and heart attacks need immediate attention. It was assumed that the resorts of Punta Baluarte would have at least an emergency clinic during this holiday season, but she was proven desperately wrong.

Ruby was coming from Matuod. She rushed to Lian to see if there were any hospitals there. Nope. She dashed off to the Nasugbu junction of the sugar mills. It would have been logical to assume that a good hospital would be available there, but when she looked into the hospital and saw that there seemed to be no emergency equipment or a doctor available — even the ambulance driver was not ready — she knew this hospital could not handle a heart attack. 

By this time, Silvana was heading towards Nasugbu. Ruby remembered her friend, Cora Tibayan, who has a heart condition and has a resort in Lemery. Cora said, “Take a right turn towards Balayan. There is a new hospital in Lemery called Our Lady of Caysasay. They have good doctors from UST who are on duty.”

When you are desperately running and don’t know where to go, it would be helpful to have signs to point towards a hospital but such was not the case this night. Only faith in Cora’s directions kept Ruby and Silvana speeding into the black night through sugarcane plantations.

By the time Ramon arrived at Our Lady of Caysasay, a neurologist and cardiologist were ready to treat him. It took over three hours to stabilize him and the doctors recommended bringing him to Manila in an ambulance.

There, another saga developed. At the height of the holiday weekend, no ambulance was available. One was in good condition but the driver was drunk. After using all our resources and influence possible, Makati Medical finally agreed to send their ambulance. It took two hours of negotiation and agreeing to the demand of a P50,000 down-payment before the ambulance even left the garage. Finally, the patient arrived in Makati, 12 hours after his first attack.

Fortunately, Ramon survived his ordeal and is now recovering in the ICU beside Saguisag’s room, but many of the horror stories of accidents that continue to happen in Batangas do not have a happy ending. Patients continue to have no access to hospitals nearby.

With such affluent developments as Hamilo Cove, Tali Beach, Punta Fuego, Maya Maya, Pico de Loro, Puerto Azul,  Caylabne Resort, Vista de Loro, Matabungkay, White Sands, Bamboo Cove, Matuod, Calatagan, and Punta Baluarte, even finding a portable oxygen tank is a challenge.

Many suggestions are beginning to be aired. Not everyone can afford the helicopter airlifts that would be the recourse of rich people. Suggestions range from strengthening the existing hospitals to requiring the Batangas government to set up an emergency center. In a place where lavish mansions cater to the richest families, how come emergency services are given such low priority?

“It is useless to wait for the government to help us out,” says Henry Zabarte, who has had his own share of frightening stories that required urgent medical attention. “Residents with homes in any of these developments should get together and organize themselves so that they can decide as a group how to remedy the situation.”

If you are one of these holiday homeowners, e-mail me so we can send you details of the meeting. The life you’ll be saving might be your own.

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E-mail: aurorawilson@gmail.com