REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

7th Judicial Region

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
Branch IX
Cebu City

LEAH ALESNA REYES, Civil Case No. 12345

ROSE NAHDJA, JOHNNY,
and minors LLOYD and KRISTINE,
all surnamed REYES, represented by their
mother, LEAH ALESNA REYES,
Plaintiff,

-versus- For:MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

SISTERS OF MERCY HOSPITAL,

SISTER ROSE PALACIO,
DR.MARVIE BLANES, and
DR. MARLYN RICO,
Defendants.
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COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT

I, Dr. Marvie Blanes of legal age, married, Filipino citizen, and a

resident of Arc Properties 6th, Apas, Cebu City, Cebu Philippines after
having been duly sworn to in accordance with law, do hereby depose
and state:

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

That, I give the following statement by way of answers (A) to

the questions (Q) propounded to me by Atty. Fe Marie G. Susuban at
her office at Camella Properties, Apas, Cebu City, Cebu, aware that I
do so under oath, and that I expose myself to the penalties of perjury
or false testimony should I be found to have given a false statement.

STATEMENT PROPER

1. Q: Please state you name and other personal

circumstances.
A: I am Dr. Mavie Blanes of legal age, married, Filipino
citizen, a Doctor by profession at Mercy Community
 Clinic, and a resident of Arc Properties 6th, Apas, Cebu
City, Cebu Philippines and one of the defendants in the
said case.

2. Q: Why are you here in my office today?

A: To give a statement regarding the civil case filed against
me for medical malpractice.

3. Q: Do you personally know the complainant in the said

case?
A: Yes, they are the family of one of my patient, the late
Jorge Reyes who was admitted on January 8, 1987 and
died last January 9, 1987.

4. Q: What happened to the late Jorge Reyes?

A: On January 8, 1987, Jorge Reyes was taken to the Mercy
Community Clinic by his wife. Five days before his death
on January 8, 1987, Jorge had been suffering from a
recurring fever with chills. After he failed to get relief from
some home medication he was taking, which consisted of
analgesic, antipyretic, and antibiotics, he decided to see
the doctor.

5. Q: Who attended Jorge upon admission?

A: He was attended to by another defendant of this case, Dr.
Marlyn Rico, a resident physician and admitting physician
on duty, who gave Jorge a physical examination and took
his medical history. She noted that at the time of his
admission, Jorge was conscious, ambulatory, oriented,
coherent, and with respiratory distress.

6. Q: What was the diagnosis of Dr. Marlyn Rico?

A: Typhoid fever was then prevalent in the locality, as the
clinic had been getting from 15 to 20 cases of typhoid per
month. Suspecting that Jorge could be suffering from this
disease, Dr. Rico ordered a Widal Test, a standard test for
typhoid fever, to be performed on Jorge. Blood count,
routine urinalysis, stool examination, and malarial smear
were also made. After about an hour, the medical
technician submitted the results of the test from which Dr.
Rico concluded that Jorge was positive for typhoid fever.
As her shift was only up to 5:00 p.m., Dr. Rico indorsed
Jorge to me.
7. Q: What happened next?
A: I then attended to Jorge at around six in the evening. I
also took Jorge’s history and gave him a physical
examination.

8. Q: What was your impression and diagnosis upon

examining Jorge and having the result of the Widal
Test?
A: Like Dr. Rico, my impression was that Jorge had typhoid
fever.

9. Q: Did you give Jorge any medicine after examining

him?
A: Antibiotics being the accepted treatment for typhoid fever,
I ordered that a compatibility test with the antibiotic
chloromycetin be done on Jorge. Said test was
administered by nurse Josephine Pagente who also gave
the patient a dose of triglobe.

10. Q: What happened next?

A: As I did not observe any adverse reaction by the patient to
chloromycetin, I ordered the first five hundred milligrams
of said antibiotic to be administered on Jorge at around
9:00 p.m. A second dose was administered on Jorge
about three hours later just before midnight.

11. Q: What happened next?

A: At around 1:00 a.m. of January 9, 1987, I was called as
Jorge’s temperature rose to 41°C. The patient also
experienced chills and exhibited respiratory distress,
nausea, vomiting, and convulsions. I put him under
oxygen, used a suction machine, and administered
hydrocortisone, temporarily easing the patient’s
convulsions. When he regained consciousness, the
patient was asked by Dr. Blanes whether he had a
previous heart ailment or had suffered from chest pains in
the past. Jorge replied he did not.

12. Q: Did Jorge felt better after it?

A: No. After about 15 minutes, however, Jorge again started
to vomit, showed restlessness, and his convulsions
returned. I re-applied the emergency measures taken
 before and, in addition, valium was administered. Jorge,
however, did not respond to the treatment and slipped into
cyanosis, a bluish or purplish discoloration of the skin or
mucous membrane due to deficient oxygenation of the
blood. At around 2:00 a.m., Jorge died.

13. Q: What was the cause of his death?

A: He died of "Ventricular Arrythemia Secondary to
Hyperpyrexia and typhoid fever."

14. Q: Was there anything unusual or extraordinary about

Jorge’s death?
A: No. While it is true that the patient died just a few hours
after professional medical assistance was rendered, there
was really nothing unusual or extraordinary about his
death.

15. Q: How could you say so?

A: Prior to his admission, the patient already had recurring
fevers and chills for five days unrelieved by the analgesic,
antipyretic, and antibiotics given him by his wife. This
shows that he had been suffering from a serious illness
and professional medical help came too late for him.

16. Q: Do you conform to the Widal’s test conducted by Dr.

Rico?
A: Yes. Dr. Marlyn Rico did not depart from the reasonable
standard recommended by the experts as she in fact
observed the due care required under the circumstances.
Though the Widal test is not conclusive, it remains a
standard diagnostic test for typhoid fever and, in the
present case, greater accuracy through repeated testing
was rendered unobtainable by the early death of the
patient. The results of the Widal test and the patient’s
history of fever with chills for five days, taken with the fact
that typhoid fever was then prevalent as indicated by the
fact that the clinic had been getting about 15 to 20 typhoid
cases a month, were sufficient to give upon any doctor of
reasonable skill the impression that Jorge Reyes had
typhoid fever.

17. Q: Let’s go back to when you were attending Jorge, why

did you administer chloromycetin as the course of
 treatment?
A: Chloromycetin was the drug of choice for typhoid fever.

18. Q: In the Complaint filed by the Plaintiff they averred that

there were no sufficient tests conducted on the
patient’s compatibility with said drug, is that true?
A: No. The usual way of guarding against it prior to the
administration of a drug, is the skin test of which,
however, it has been observed: "Skin testing with haptenic
drugs is generally not reliable. Certain drugs cause
nonspecific histamine release, producing a weal-and-flare
reaction in normal individuals. Immunologic activation of
mast cells requires a polyvalent allergen, so a negative
skin test to a univalent haptenic drug does not rule out
anaphylactic sensitivity to that drug." However, what was
required is that we perform the standard tests and perform
standard procedures and this is the skin test done to the
deceased.

19. Q: Do you have any proof and/or witness?

A: Yes. We offer the testimonies of Dr. Peter Gotiong and Dr.
Ibarra Panopio. Dr. Gotiong is a diplomate in internal
medicine whose expertise is microbiology and infectious
diseases. He is also a consultant at the Cebu City Medical
Center and an associate professor of medicine at the
South Western University College of Medicine in Cebu
City. He had treated over a thousand cases of typhoid
patients.

The other doctor is Dr. Ibarra Panopio, a member of the

American Board of Pathology, examiner of the Philippine
Board of Pathology from 1978 to 1991, fellow of the
Philippine Society of Pathologist, associate professor of
the Cebu Institute of Medicine, and chief pathologist of the
Andres Soriano Jr. Memorial Hospital in Toledo City.

20. Q: What is your prayer then to the Honorable Court?

A: I respectfully pray for the Honorable Court to dismiss the
case filed against me for medical malpractice.

21. Q: Do you affirm that the statement you give is true and
correct?
A: Yes, maam.
22. Q: Are you willing to sign a transcript of your statement?
A: Yes, maam.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereby sign these presents on this

th
15 day of November 2021 in Camella Properties, Apas, Cebu City,
Cebu, Philippines.

DR. MAVIE BLANES

(defendant)