GMA REMAINS IN ICU; PALACE SUSPICIOUS / GMA PREFERS TO BE TREATED HERE
[PHOTO - DR. JULIET GOPEZ-CERVANTES -FORMER PRESIDENT ARROYO'S ST. LUKE'S ATTENDING DOCTOR]
MANILA, AUGUST 16, 2011 (TIMES) by : MARIA NIKKA U. GARRIGA AND SAMMY MARTIN - WITH her camp appealing for prayers and a reprieve from her detractors, the spokesman of the hospital where former president and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province is recuperating said on Monday that there has been no major change in her condition.
Meanwhile, a Malacanang official also on Monday scored the legal camp of the Arroyos for retracting a statement on the current health condition of Mrs. Arroyo.
Marilyn Lagniton, the spokesman for St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City (Metro Manila), said that the 64-year-old former president was still getting medication for her infection, which prevented her doctors from operating on her spine last week. Mrs. Arroyo needs a third operation because a titanium implant on her spine got dislocated.
Lagniton added that Mrs. Arroyo's attending doctors were keeping close watch on her.
Earlier, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, one of the former leader's attending doctors, said that they made a backtrack since Mrs. Arroyo's first day of admission to the hospital to determine if there were breaks in the protocol that could have caused the infection on the former president over the weekend. She said that the backtracking probe turned out negative results.
Mrs. Arroyo's legal spokesman, lawyer Raul Lambino (photo) , told reporters during a forum on Saturday that doctors were trying their best to bring back the appetite of Mrs. Arroyo who looked weak because she was not taking any solid food.
Lambino was quoted as saying, "Kahit ikaw hindi ka kumakain, asa ka lang sa dextrose at ibang gamot, tiyak manghihina ka [If you do not eat and rely on dextrose and medications, you will surely get weak]."
The hospital has allowed only close family members of Mrs. Arroyo to visit her.
Palace reaction
Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda (photo) criticized Lambino for denying statements that Mrs. Arroyo may need to go out of the country to seek medical treatment.
The former president has been placed under a watch-list order of the Department of Justice (DOJ) over alleged corruption charges.
"We are not alone in being puzzled why attorney-turned-doctor Lambino decided to comment on the medical condition of his client," Lacierda said.
"We are not surprised, however, that in apparently having to make an about-face for whatever reason, he disowns his previous statements by engaging in the usual squid tactics to push the political line that Rep. Arroyo faces persecution, not justice," he added.
Lambino was quoted by reports over the weekend saying that the attending physicians of the former president recommended that she seek medical treatment abroad.
This prompted Malacanang to defer to the decision of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on the lifting of the watch-list order against Mrs. Arroyo so that the former president can seek medical treatment overseas.
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Arroyo prefers to stay in country for treatment by Maricel Cruz
PAMPANGA Rep. Gloria Arroyo prefers to be treated for her spinal problems in the country despite her doctors' advise to seek medical attention abroad, the former President's spokesman said Sunday.
"She said if she leaves the country, people will say she is running away from the plunder cases filed against her," Raul Lambino said.
There was no official word from the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig about Mrs. Arroyo's condition, or whether the reports saying she had been brought back to the hospital's intensive-care unit were true.
Arroyo had surgery on July 29 to correct a problem with her spine, but she had to have a second operation on Aug. 10 when her titanium implant became dislodged. Still, that operation was aborted when her doctors found that a nerve near the implant had become infected.
Lambino said Arroyo was sensitive to public opinion and would do what she had to do even if her health was at stake.
"The doctors said if the infection spread, it could reach her brain and she could develop meningitis and suffer complete paralysis, or it could reach her heart and she could have a stroke," Lambino said.
Administration and opposition lawmakers said they saw nothing wrong with Arroyo seeking treatment abroad.
"It's not bad to seek a second opinion abroad," said Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr., an administration congressman.
Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay, a known Arroyo ally, said the former President should go abroad if her doctors said she should.
She slammed Arroyo's critics for their "paranoia." With Joyce Pangco Pañares
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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