CHR-Negros Or. pursues probe on mother’s death after childbirth

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental is now set to summon a number of people soon as part of an ongoing investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of a woman from Manjuyod town immediately after childbirth.

These people included a doctor from the provincial hospital, Manjuyod Mayor Felix Sy and a midwife from that town who had also administered to the dying patient, said Jess Cañete, special investigator of CHR-Negros Oriental.

Cañete on Monday said he was waiting for the affidavit of Doctor Crystal Anne Centeno of the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital in Dumaguete City to give and explain the medical abstract on the deceased patient in what appeared to be a “forceful delivery” of the latter’s baby.

The investigation slowed down because of the long holiday break as well as other pressing matters at work but Cañete assured the public that his office will exhaust all means to get to the bottom of the circumstances that led to the untimely death of the woman.

The death certificate showed the causes of death as multi-organ failure, uterine inversion and hypotensive shock, according to Cañete.

Yesterday, Cañete got the affidavit of Maritess Cabugnason, a midwife assigned at the lying-in clinic in Manjuyod, to further corroborate early statements given by the complainant, Nishel Geroquia, sister of the deceased mother, Nerissa Cordova.

Geroquia, a resident of Alangilanan in Manjuyod town, had sought the help of the CHR in early December to “seek justice” for the death of her sister, Nerissa Cordova, who gave birth on November 20 at the clinic in that town. The baby however survived.

A midwife, who Geroquia identified as Ludy Abordo, attended to Cordova until the time of delivery and then left. A second midwife, Maritess Cabugnason, then took over and was the one who discovered that Cordova was already “under stress” and her vital signs were dropping.

Cabugnason, accompanied by Geroquia, met Cañete in Dumaguete last Sunday and told reporters she was willing to testify.

Fighting back tears when interviewed, Cabugnason said she had accompanied Cordova, who was brought by the town’s ambulance to the NOPH and, upon arrival, one of the attending physicians shouted about an “inverted uterus.” The doctors even attempted to put back in place the uterus, she added.  — Judy Flores Partlow (FREEMAN)