A REPLY TO A MIDLAND COURIER EDITORIAL

On July 26, 2009, the MIDLAND COURIER EDITORIAL, released a Column entitled PLAYING GOD.

Unfortunately the column stated facts which were merely one sided, imbalanced and untruthful. The side of SLU Hospital of the Sacred Heart was not heard, since the Editor did not investigate, verify or give the SLU Hospital the opportunity to explain its side of the story.

The Editorial stated that, “an order reportedly from the Hospital Administrator and an Assistant Chief Nurse was laid down not to admit the patient coming from BGH-referring to Magnolia.” This is absolutely not true. The hospital policy is to admit patients seeking admission to the SLU Hospital. In fact patient Magnolia Garcia was admitted and attended to immediately and promptly in the SLU Hospital Emergency Room and the proper treatment and care given despite the information earlier relayed to the Medical Staff of BGH that no mechanical ventilator was available.

The mechanical ventilator is obviously more advantageous than that of an Ambu bag, which the Editor of Midland Courier may not know. Mechanical ventilators provide a number of advantages over other types of ventilatory support. Mechanical ventilation is lightweight and compact which makes it convenient and very easy to use. Secondly, they are an improvement over the bag-valve device (Ambubag) in maintaining minute volume. The mechanical ventilation system is also able to endure extreme temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Fahrenheit to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Another advantage of mechanical ventilation is that, it is typically equipped with both an adjustable ventilatory rate and tidal volume. This will allow the machine to function intermittently, reverting to controlled mechanical ventilation in patients who are not breathing.

The SLU Emergency Room Staff explained that since Pines City Doctors Hospital, a nearby hospital had an available Mechanical Ventilator ready for use, it was prudent and highly recommendable that it would be to the best interest of the patient that she be instead transferred to the said Hospital. Since the accompanying relatives consented to the recommendation, patient was transferred via the SLU-HSH ambulance accompanied by the Medical Staff to the Pines City Doctors Hospital where she was immediately attended to.

We reaffirm our commitment to provide the highest quality medical care and management for the people of the Cordilleras upholding its tradition of excellent medical services reflective of the Christian value of selfless sharing.
We hope this explanation puts close the issues in this case.


repost from: http://www.slu.edu.ph/index.jsp