THIS statement concerns the recent news reports about me in relation to the Resolution of the Third Division of the Supreme Court in G.R. No. 215121 dated June 23, 2021.
Almost 18 years ago or on Jan. 5, 2006, the Doctor conducted an arthroscopy operation on my left knee which led to an infection. The infection was exactly in the same site where the arthroscope which was used in the operation was inserted. Twenty-eight days later or on Feb. 2, 2006, the infection was surgically removed by another doctor. Surgical removal was necessary because the infection was already widespread. I then had another operation on June 7, 2006, because of a locked wrist which I suffered because I was using a cane when I am not on my wheelchair. More than one year later, on June 20, 2007, I had yet another operation to remove the scar which formed inside my left knee which resulted from the removal of the infection. This last operation was not included in my complaint because it was performed more than a year after its filing.
I was bound to a wheelchair for almost two years and had to use a cane when I had to walk out of necessity. I also underwent physical rehabilitation for three years. The second, third and fourth operations were performed in St. Luke’s Medical Center, Quezon City, unlike the very first operation which was performed in another hospital. More than a dozen doctors who graduated from the University of the Philippines helped me in my predicament. What they did was nothing short of a miracle because I thought that I will never walk again, and I was only 46 years old at that time and now I am 64 years old. For more than two years, pain was my constant companion. My reward for bearing pain was pain.
I will always be grateful to St. Luke’s Medical Center, to my wife who is also a physician, and the doctors and other medical personnel who helped me during those trying times.
