Videos of the week: Focus on U.P. Philippine General Hospital (PGH)

The plight of Jayson Dimaculangan, tricycle driver

Summary:

Please add Jayson Dimaculangan to your list of friends in Friendster or in Facebook. We are trying to look for people who might be able to help Jayson get enough antibiotics.

Jayson Dimaculangan is a 24 year old victim of a drunk jeepney driver who swerved off the road in Sariaya, Quezon last July 2008. Since then, Jayson has been paralyzed. He has been admitted in and out of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) since September 2008 and had spinal surgery. After the surgery, he has a complication called tracheocutaneous fistula which got infected and he became septic. He can't eat since October 2008 and had surgery called PEG insertion wherein he is fed via a tube in his abdomen. Aside from having a previous infection with MRSA, he has now a very resistant form of the bacteria Pseudomonas which is resistant to all antibiotics except meropenem and imipinem. He needs 6 weeks of meropenem which will cost the family P7,500-P8,500 per day and he needs a second spinal surgery because of the infection. This will cost almost half a million for the MEROPENEM alone. They will have more expenses from his spinal surgery. The family could not afford this because of his long hospital stay and numerous operation. His father is only a tricycle driver and his mother a housewife in Quezon.

Please pray for Jayson's recovery and hopefully a good soul will help them get enough antibiotics. The family needs all the support they can get and you can visit them at PGH, Ward 6 Bed 21. For more information, you can visit Jayson at PGH Ward 6 bed 21 or call his mother Julieta at +639104734675. You can also email us at dimaculangan.jayson@yahoo.com.

They have a BPI account in Lucena, Quezon:
Julieta Dimaculangan
Account No. 0869058068

Again, please help us. If Jayson can not get enough Meropenem, the strain will be resistant to all other antibiotics and this strain may affect other patients as well. We thank everyone for their helps, prayers, and visits.

Editor's Note: The Diliman Diary does not immediately know of the current medical status of Jayson and will update its readers ASAP. We included his video as his plight is a potent metaphor for the thousands of indigent patients who depend on the PGH and the expertise of its doctors and staff and who would have nowhere else to go for treatment for their often life-threatening sicknesses and conditions. In 2008 alone, the Commission on Audit (COA) says that PGH served a total of 560,218 patients. Of this total, 49,340 (9%) were admitted in Charity Wards, 14,274 (3%) in Pay Wards and the remaining 496,604 (89%) were outpatients.






Philippine General Hospital Operating Room Staff

Summary:

The video above is dedicated to all the hardworking Nurses of the PGH-OR complex. Everywhere we go, this will be an experience engraved in our hearts.

Don't forget to look back were we started. This place is our school after graduation. A lot of learning experiences. A lot of people whom we got to know. Good or bad, it still helped us to grow as nurses and as individuals.

Keep supporting the PGH-OR,....Mabuhay PGH-OR Nurses!!!

Editor's note:

COA says that the PGH's annual budget shortfall of PhP 1.7 billion, results in inadequate facilities, a poor nurse to patient ratio, unpaid utility bills, and underpaid medical personnel, which may adversely affect the premier state hospital's goal of becoming one of the best national university hospitals in Asia, and achieving the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2000 Certification. In particular, the nurses are often not given hazard pay which is a requirement under the law and which is a problem the PGH Administration must eventually solve.




University of the Philippines Medical Center

The corporate video above is very educational and well-done in terms of rendering, in visual format for our many interested readers what the architectural, strategic and vision-mission implications are for the construction of the upcoming Outpatient Hospital to rise within the grounds of Philippine General Hospital & University of the Philippines Manila.

This issue has been covered extremely extensively by the Diliman Diary, including the very intricate politics behind the issue that has split the University of the Philippines community wide apart. As chroncilers, interpreters and story tellers, the Diliman Diary is committed to providing as much information, analysis and opinion as our readers can stand in order for them to make up their own minds on any given topic.