Nurse surfaces, denies taping newborn’s lips

CEBU, Philippines - Fifteen days after the incident, the nurses and midwife in question in the alleged taping of a newborn baby’s lips at the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House, Inc. (CPCMHI) have surfaced to deny the allegation.

Registered nurses Arianne Mae Pacula and Kamille Isabela Neri and midwife Orlanes Methozeva, yesterday attended the inter-agency meeting of a Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 task force with CPCMHI lawyer Cornelio Mercado and medical director Raida Varona.

Jasmine Badocdoc and Ryan Noval, parents of the baby, were given the chance to speak first during the meeting.

According to Badocdoc, she went to CPCMHI around 7:40 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on May 9 to visit her baby when she saw the plaster over her baby’s mouth.  She said she did not touch the plaster thinking that an oxygen source or something else is connected to the baby’s mouth for medication.

While narrating what she saw, Badocdoc broke into tears during the meeting, which Mercado requested should be made open to the media.

Badocdoc said that after knowing that there was only a plaster that sealed the upper and lower lips of her baby, she immediately asked the attending nurse about it.

She recognized Pacula as the nurse who attended to her at the nursery at that time. She said Pacula reportedly replied that the plaster was placed because Badocdoc’s son was crying non-stop and was too noisy.

Knowing that what was done to her baby was wrong, she took a picture to show to her live-in partner.

Badocdoc said that when she heard her baby cry, she asked Pacula to remove the plaster, but was told by the nurse that she could remove it herself.

Badocdoc said when she tried to remove the tape but could not continue because the plaster stuck fast to the baby’s lips, Pacula eventually intervened and took the plaster.

“Pag-remove gani nako sa ako-ang plaster sa akong kamot, nasakitan man gani ko nga dako na ko. Ang akong baby pa kaha (I even felt pain when I removed the plaster on my hand while confined at the hospital, how much more the baby),” Badocdoc said in explaining why she could not remove the plaster herself.

Pacula, who has been serving the maternity hospital for two years, also cried while telling her side.

She said that when Badocdoc arrived at the special intensive care unit of the nursery around 7:30 p.m. on May 9, she neither noticed a pacifier nor a plaster over the baby’s mouth.

Pacula said she instructed Badocdoc to stay at the Mother-Child Room since baby Badocdoc was still sleeping. Pacula said at 8 p.m. she and another nurse ate dinner.

Pacula said that at around 8:30 p.m., Badocdoc asked her about the plaster over her baby’s mouth.

“I was even surprised nganong naay (why there was a) plaster,” Pacula said, adding that she only presumed and told Badocdoc that maybe it was because her baby was crying aloud or maybe because of a pacifier.

Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, who joined the meeting, then asked Pacula if a pacifier is prohibited in the hospital or not and if taping is not a practice in the hospital, which was why Pacula made the presumption in trying to determine why a tape was over the baby’s mouth.

“Wala pod ko kahibawo, sir. I just tried to explain para dili siya ma-worry (so Badocdoc would not worry),” Pacula said, adding that she just let the pacifier be in the upper left side of the crib of the baby.

Carillo also asked the nurse if she had the incident recorded to let her supervising nurse know what happened.

“That time sir, wala ko na-alarm kay naka-feed man gani ang mother that time. Wala man sad na-unsa ang bata that time sir,” Pacula said, adding that it did not occur to her that she had to write down and report the incident.

Atty. Alan Felix Macaraya of the National Telecommunications Communication (NTC) Legal Office also asked Pacula why she did not confiscate the pacifier when it was supposedly prohibited.  The nurse, however, was not able to answer the question.

National Bureau of Investigation Supervising Agent Rey Villordon likewise asked Pacula if the plaster used to seal the baby’s lips was similar to the plasters available in the hospital.

“Kon i-base sa photo lang sir, lapad rato ang naa sa picture (The plaster in the photo was wider),” Pacula said.

However, Badocdoc said the plaster used to tape her baby’s hep-lock medication was similar to the plaster that sealed her baby’s lips.

At this point, Mercado asked Badocdoc to reveal the time the photo was taken.

It was Atty. Dante Jadman, task force spokesperson, who read the details of the photo.

Jadman said the first photo was taken at 7:58 p.m., the second one was at 7:59 p.m., while a third photo was made at 8 p.m.. A fourth and last photo was taken at 8:08 p.m.

Badocdoc said the last photo was taken after her baby cried.

In the same meeting, Macaraya also showed the NTC certification as proof that all the photos were “genuine, authentic, and identical.”

Afterwards, DSWD-7’s Grace Yana asked the maternity hospital to provide a copy of the Child Protection Policy of the establishment in the next meeting on Tuesday.

Noval and Badocdoc also requested a copy of the May 9 footage of the hospital’s lobby CCTVs. Mercado, on the other hand, asked them to provide a timeline and soft and hard copies of the photos.

The inter-agency meeting, which the NBI-7, DOH-7, CHR-7, Professional Regulations Commission, NTC-, DSWD-7, Philippine National Police, Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Philippine Nurses Association, and Cebu City Hall’s Department of Social Welfare and Services, and the Cebu Province attended, took more than two hours. — Jean Marvette A. Demecillo/RHM (FREEMAN)