Davao Medical Center refuses admission to cancer, TB patient

If you don’t have money and you have cancer and tuberculosis don’t go to the Davao Medical Center because the hospital will just throw you out anyway. This seems to be the message imparted by DMC when they refused admission to a patient suffering from Prostate Cancer stage 4 and Tuberculosis.

“Sinabi sa min ng doctor sa Emergency Room na di nila tatanggapin ang pasyente namin kasi wala raw silang facilities para sa kanya at di nila kayang maalagaan ang pasyente dun,” Rizaldy Ancheta, the patient’s brother said. He said the doctor further added that “sa private niyo na lang dalhin yan kahit ilang buwan sya dun pwede.”

The patient, Arnold Ancheta, 64 years old and an employee of the Mindanao Economic Development Council for several years already was brought by the 911 ambulance to DMC. However, barely an hour after the ambulance brought him to this facility, the nurses started removing his dextrose since they are refusing him admission. He was not even brought home by the ambulance but was left to fend for himself, his relatives and his co-employees who were there in the hospital.

Ancheta, who is the sole bread winner of his family, was hoping to get support from the government since he has no more savings left after being in and out of the hospital for years. He was not able to work regularly and normally for months so he had no salary to even buy his prescription thus he was taking basic medications like Biogesic for pain.

“Kaya nga dinala naming sya sa DMC kasi walang pera para ipasok sya sa private---ngayon pati Philhealth benefits hindi nya makuha kasi ayaw siya i-admit ng DMC,” his brother said.

Ancheta has been staying at home for the past months despite his serious condition because they did not have money to bring him to the hospital. However, he requested his family to bring him to DMC since he could not longer bear the pain caused by cancer.

After DMC refused him admission, he had no choice but to return to his rented house, desolate and discouraged that a government employee like him who has rendered years of service to the government could not even be admitted in a government hospital.

Efforts to call DMC administration officer Ric Jostol have been made five times but no one was answering his phone