Death in a hospital

Mariano Carrasco

 A MONTH ago, a woman, then back riding on a “habal-habal” motorcycle, was thrown off after the driver bumped into a stray goat somewhere in Indahag. She was brought to a nearby private hospital, but the one who brought her could not produce the required cash deposit of ten thousand pesos. Hemorrhaging, she was transferred to a government hospital where she died three days later leaving behind a bereaved husband and several loving children.

We have heard of many similar stories. People dying, hemorraghing, wounded—all unattended because they could not produce the required cash deposit. This should not happen in a Christian society like ours. The resources of society and government should be able to meet the needs of these “emergency cases” where cash deposits are demanded by hospitals.

My wife, Atty. Vangie Carrasco, thinks there should be law wherein government would automatically grant or assure payment of the cash deposit needs of hospitals, say in the amount of ten or twenty thousand pesos in “emergency” cases. This way hospitals would immediately act on the patients, instead of turning them away or leaving them unattended. After the assured or guaranteed cash deposit is consumed, then perhaps the patients or the relatives can already secure the needed additional funds or process the Philhealth or medical      insurance documents to meet the additional medical expenses.

This humane approach should be extended even to deceased individuals who deserve to be lying in state and be buried with dignity at the end of their lives. There should be legislation mandating that local government units should have decent funeral cars and funeral homes. After all government can afford to buy luxury vehicles and construct buildings for top government executives, and could build roads and infrastructure worth billions of pesos for the benefit of corporate giants. The deceased should not be brought to the cemeteries on board dump trucks, or should not be lying in state on the sidestreets, endangering their coffins and those keeping vigil.

Another piece of legislation which Vangie would propose would be requiring water and electric power utilities to first secure barangay clearances before they would cut off water and electric lines and requiring a three month delay, not just two months, before they would make the disconnection. Electricity and water are essential to human existence, and they have a social character and origin—the rivers as sources of electricity and underground waters are owned by society after all. Disconnecting the water and electrical connection of homes would amount to ejecting the occupants thereof, depriving them of much needed resources. If ejecting an individual from his home would require that plaintiff should first obtain a barangay certification, then the same thing should be required of public utilities.

There is so much to be legislated especially in the area of agrarian and urban land reform, labor protection, and education. So many are homeless and landless even as vast tracts of public land remain idle and are being illegally titled by the powerful few. Many are impoverished, uneducated, and unemployed. Vangie’s long years of law practice in our law office  would surely go a long way to helping in the passage of needed legislative measures that will enable all of us to live peacefully and decently, instead of just remaining as “squatters” in  squalid homes which contribute to social decay and criminality. Even the elite would certainly want a decent and peaceful society.

There are many others like Vangie who want to render honest public service and are well intentioned. She deserves support, including my support, though in a sense I would be losing her and I would be a loser if she gets elected. Congested Manila is not my place. But we all have to make self-sacrifices. I died once when I suffered a heart attack in the hospital. I was simply revived. I was dead, and I was given a new lease on life. This time, I have nothing more to lose. I can only thank God.

 (Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)