Geriatic Floor: St.

Luke's Medical Center

A mother was only one of the many victims of the negligence, incompetence, and
malpractice of St. Luke's Hospital, many of its doctors, and every single nurse who was assigned
to the patient, no exception. As a graduate of nursing from the University of the Philippines, I
had the great misfortune of witnessing first hand, the incredible lack of compassion, basic
nursing care and professionalism that nursing stands for, as well as the serious lack of basic
intelligence from all the hospital's nurses that the St. Lukes employs and tolerates.

The nursing duties and functions that were so simple and basic, and that should have all
been mastered while in nursing school prior to graduation and licensure, all turned into major
disasters and complications that could have ALL been prevented. These are only a few of the
negligent and incompetent acts: (1) bed sores on the patient buttocks on the third day of
admission, not having been turned, moved or changed, (she was actually stuck to the soiled linen
from old urine and feces) until the patient daughter arrived and changed ti itself, there was
absolutely no reason for decubitus ulcers on a third day, or any day for that matter, if basic
nursing care is carried out. She was in a private room on the Geriatric floor where nobody
changed patient's beddings for weeks at a time, or until forced to by the family of the patient.

(2) fecal impaction which resulted in acute rectal bleeding and anemia, and subsequent and
multiple blood transfusions, plus a stat colonoscopy that required anesthesia of course, in an
already compromised patient. The daughter begged for the attending (Sotomayor) to check her
bowels DAILY, because she had not had a bowel movement in several days, and only on the
10th day, did the patient finally get an order in the chart for an INTERN to disimpact the patient,
which resulted in bleeding and hemorrhage.

(3) misuse of the appropriate antibiotics, having had a urine culture done, the attending ordered
Amoxil which was not sensitive to the bacteria in her urine, and a few days later, she became
septic and gradually deteriorated from untreated Urinary Tract Infection. This is a disease that
we treat in the outpatient settings in the United States, it is basic, easy to treat, if standard care
and protocols are followed.

(4) As a Diabetic, the phlebotomists continued to take blood out of her feet when nobody was
looking, or intentionally at dawn, when the patient attendant was sleeping, and before the family
member arrived for a visit. I posted signs all over the wall and bed, and informed the nurses and
laboratory supervisors never to allow blood drawing from any other part of her body aside from
her arm, but nobody heeded my instructions. The patient died of a Massive Pulmonary Embolus
after 45 days of admission at St. Lukes. This clot was a direct result of drawing blood from her
lower extremities, simply because the medical technologists were too incompetent and too lazy
to find any other vein elsewhere.

(5) Physical Therapist burned the patient left arm and shoulder while applying the ultrasonic
heat, and not bothering to test before using on a patient. I found the burns myself, they were
never reported. The patient sustained first and second degree burns that again, were dismissed as
"normal and usual effects of being a patient at St. Lukes." That is not tolerated in the United
States, would have required an incident report, which was never completed, and would have
easily been grounds for negligent action and malpractice.

(6) Tube Feedings. Not a single RN on the floor had the basic knowledge or skill as to the proper
use and feeding process of the patient PEG tube. They practically shoved the container of food as
fast as they could, causing abdominal discomfort, unless I stood next to her bed to watch and
supervise. Nobody on the floor even knew how to use the feeding tube machine on that Geriatric
Floor. We had the supervisor, head nurse and director of nursing in the patient room trying to
figure out how to use this very simple machine that they should have been trained to use
properly. Needless to say, because of the delay in feedings, the patient nutritional status was
compromised even more, resulting also in occlusion of her PEG tube, which of course required a
replacement. The skills or lack of, in these nurses were pathetic, and unacceptable.

(7) This was rather interesting. At 9 o'clock every morning, a clerk from the business office
would knock at the patient door to hand the hospital bill, and ask how much they was paying that
particular day! It did not matter how much of the expense these incompetent employees were
costing me for their negligent actions, all that mattered is that they made a deposit towards the
multi-million peso bill that multiplied every hour! And if they did not go down to make a
payment, they would call to remind them until they did. At the ER, the hospital refused to treat
the patient until the sister made a P10,000 deposit in the middle of the night, when the banks are
closed! And on discharge, after Dr. Abraham-Lim's professional discount they paid a 2 Million
Peso hospital bill that did not include the pharmacy and mutiple professional fees.

I can go on and on with the numerous disasters, these are only a few that stick out in my mind
and that I will never forget.

There were clearly several instances where St. Lukes failed to meet the standard of care which
directly caused injury and subsequent death to the patient. I made every effort to litigate, but
unfortunately, there were no malpractice attorneys available in the country, and nobody was
willing to take the case in the Philippines. I tried to publish the detailed scenario of the many
terrible mistakes committed that eventually led to the patients, but the lawyers of this big
corporate institution paid Manila Times and other newspaper publications not to publish my
article. I wrote to the Secretary of Health, but got no response. I wrote and sent letters by
certified mail, to the President and CEO of St. Lukes and to the Director of Nursing and the
Nursing Department, and again, did not get any response.

As a Filipina myself, I must say it is rather unfortunate that Filipinos and others who
reside in the Philippines, have to fall victim to the poor and negligent, but very, very expensive
medical care of hospitals every day. There must be a way to put a stop to this negligent care.