Your human rights do not end when you die, and let no one tell you different.
On December 15, 1995, Salustiano Sacara, a family driver known to his employer and
friends as "Mang Ludoy", an honest, and hard-working man, took his wife to St. Luke's
Hospital. She was dying from cancer.
By December 28, or after 13 days of confinement, the cost of her treatment reached the
staggering amount of P184,417.80. This included the cost of her stay for three days
the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of St Lukes: P35,794.90 for the first day; P37,958.75
for the second; P34,513.90 for the third.
Two days later, as of December 30, the bill had risen to P239,363.00. Mang Ludoy, in
desperate straits, contemplated asking for the help of "Linkod Bayan." But he was
unable to, because events overtook him. For on January 1, 1996, Lucena Sacara, Mang
Ludoy's wife, died. Mang Ludoy was a widower. Total cost of Lucena's confinement:
P292,192.02. And this, after "deductions for erroneous billing" amounting to P8,979.60
- more than what Mang Ludoy or most driver, for that matter, earn in a month - had been
made. When the husband and children of Lucena began to make preparations for her burial,
St. Luke's refused to release her body. Pay up, the hospital said even though it had
already recieved P29,000 - as good a sign of good faith as any. You want the body? Give
us P30,000 more, the hospital said. Sign this piece of paper, called a promissory note. It says you, the family of the deceased, will pay fifty percent of the whole bill within twenty four hours of our having released the body.
Lucena's daughter signed.
The situation would have been less complicated if Lucena had been confined in the
charity ward, where the indigent are confined. But Lucena had a modest Philamcare
insurance policy, from which P25,000 had paid to the hospital; Mang Ludoy also paid
P4,000 out of his own pocket, as an initial deposit. The fact that Mang Ludoy's wife
had come in as a paying patient -though of obviously modest means- had made her
automatically ineligible for the hospital's "social services program."
A program which obviously operates on the assumption that there are only two kinds of
Filipinos: if you're not dirt poor, you must be filthy rich. No such thing as the
modest working man and woman, apparently.
Mang Ludoy's ordeal wasn't over yet.
When Lucena's body was brought to the funeraria , the undertakers asked, where is the
death certificate? No one may be buried without a death certificate.St. Luke's had not
issued a birth certificate. Mang Ludoy went to the hospital, asking for one. They said
no, we won't give you one until you pay up.
By this time, concerned citizens had come, trying to help Mang Ludoy. His employer, Mrs.
Santiago, her brother-in-law, Joe Concepcion, Mrs. Josefina Pedrosa Manahan, all tried
to reason with St. Luke's and it's management. Sen. Nikki Coseteng even wrote a letter.
They all pointed out that Mang Ludoy was an honest man, and thus no risk, and what the
hospital was doing was rubbing salt into the wounds of Mang Ludoy's bereavement,
degrading the death of his wife.
The hospital said, well, we'll give you a discount, if you want. Only after a lawyer
told Mang Ludoy that the the hospital was required by law to furnish a death
certificate "the moment there is a demand from the deceased relatives or the police."
File a complaint, the lawyer told Mang Ludoy, and go the police station and ask them
to go with you to demand the death certificate of your wife.
Only when he did so did St. Luke's, confronted with the fact that this man knew his
rights, give him the certificate.
And so it was only on January 10 that Lucena Sacara was given a Christian burial.
***
This case is disturbing becuase of what it says about the hospital concerned.
Why did St. Luke's allow an honest family to become mired in a debt from which it was
unreasonable of anyone to expect them to pay right away? You have a right to treatment
regardless of your ability to pay. And when you can pay, must you be subjected to
prohibitively expensive treatment beyond your means, and then be told, pay up? I mean,
think of it: third- and first- class distinctions are odious enough, but to have
nothing in between, that makes it worse. Is this fair?
The hospital should have told the family of the expenses involved and given them the
choice of what treatment to accept or not, according to their means. Once made aware
of the pros and cons, they could have decided what the best course of action was in
the case of Lucena, who was in a terminal state. They could have been asked if they
wanted to assume the costs of what may have been futile treatment, or if they
preferred to just make sure Lucena's final moments were spent in relative comfort.
But no one bothered to do that.
Second, they took advantage of the ordinary citizen's unfamiliarity with the law. Your
body is not collateral. You may not be imprisoned for debt, whether you are alive or
dead. Your family is entitled a death certificate just as you were entitled to a birth
certificate. You are entitled to your freedom, alive or dead, provided you have not
been charged with any crime in a court of law. Is running up a bill, as you die, a
crime?
At least Mang Ludoy was able to get help and legal advice. But what of the many who go
through the same experience, without the benefit of concerned employers and lawyers?
What then? No choice but to take the pain of loss compounded by the arrogance,
money-grubbing, and opportunism of hospitals. Interest paid in tears and humiliation.
***
Thanks to Joel & Gigi Desini, Anna Hidalgo, and Mario Inocando for their
customer-friendliness at the E-Mail Co. And my appreciation to Marvin Y. Panganiban
for making the world of BBSing less intimidating.
