Hospital slammed for refusing to release cadaver to family
LINGAYEN –One week after exposing exorbitant fees charged by doctors in Dagupan City, Second District Board Member Raul Sison this time directed his tirade at a private hospital in Dagupan City for reportedly refusing to release the cadaver of a patient that died in the hospital to his family because of the latter’s inability to pay the P153,253 hospital bill.
Sison said the daughter of the patient, Sylvia Marcelo-Imbuedo, went to see him about the refusal of Medical Centrum Dagupan Hospital in Dagupan City to release the cadaver of his father, Rolando Sebastian Marcelo, barangay councilman of Angatel, Urbiztondo, unless they pay the full amount of the hospital bill.
After days of confinement at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the hospital after suffering from a stroke due to hypertension, Marcelo passed away in the early morning of December 1.
Imbuedo said the hospital administrator refused her offer of an initial payment of P25,000 with the promise that the balance would be paid after the interment.
The hospital administrator reportedly told Imbuedo that the hospital will only release the body if they present a security deposit, either Transfer Certificate of Title on their house or a TCT on a rice field that the family is tilling.
Even the offer to leave behind the motorized tricycle that the family owns as a security deposit, was rejected by the hospital administrator saying its value will not pay for the hospital bill, Imbuedo said.
“They showed no iota of sympathy for the dead. Theirs were hearts of stone that can not be softened” Sison said in his privilege speech, referring to Medical Centrum Dagupan.
As of Wednesday, Dec. 6, Sison said the remains of the family patriarch lay unattended in the hospital and was already in the advanced state of decomposition.
The cadaver was eventually released on Dec 7 on the appeal of Board Member Sison and the Angatel barangay officials.
He asked the provincial board to craft a piece of legislation that would not deprive the rights and welfare of poor people when they avail of the services of private medical facilities. (Leonardo Micua)
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