15 May, 2008
Ang Ladlad Welcomes Suspension of 2 Doctors, Nurse in Rectal Surgery Scandal
Posted by: AJ In: Are You "A" Gay? ()
Media Release
Ang Ladlad, the national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Filipinos, welcomed the suspension by the Department of Health of two doctors and one nurse involved in the rectal surgery scandal at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC). Department of Health regional director Susana Madarieta imposed a three-month preventive suspension.
Danton Remoto, chairman of Ang Ladlad, said “This is only the beginning of the end for these callous and inhuman doctors and nurses who turned the operating room of the hospital into a circus. They not only stripped Danilo of his human dignity, but also stained the Philippine medical profession, which has already been besieged by a
series of scandals.”
However, Remoto also wants the nursing student who uploaded the video in You Tube barred by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) from taking the nursing licensure examinations. “He or she has no right to practice the profession of nursing, which is a caring profession. Moreover, the PRC should also look into the revocation of the licenses of the doctors concerned. We also wonder why only three people were suspended when the Central Visayas Ombudsman fact-finding investigation found out that seven doctors and five nurses must face administrative charges. I think they should all be suspended to give a lesson to all that we should not discriminate based on sexual orientation and class in society.” Danilo is a minimum-wage earner in a flower shop who had sexual relations with a male sex worker on the night of Dec. 31.
When he woke up, a perfume canister was already lodged in his rectum. He was operated on at the hospital two days later. The counsel for the suspended doctors are appealing their decision, saying that this deprives Cebu of medical service. “It does, factually. But do you really want to be served by people whose reputations have been stained by this scandal, which has dropped the surgical masks they wear and showed them for who they really are? How can you even expect competent and professional medical care from people like this?”
Ang Ladlad has offered to beef up the legal team of Danilo and has also offered professional therapy to the victim of the scandal.
