We were guests at a hotel in Quezon City, for my sister’s wedding preparations when my mother suffered a heart attack and fell unconscious. But the hotel was not able to provide her with first aid as there was no standby doctor, and the nurse on duty obviously did not know what to do. She did not know basic life support and just kept on taking Mama’s blood pressure even though she was already unconscious. She did not even bother to check Mama’s pulse when she was rushed to the hospital in one of the secondary sponsor’s vehicle. (The hotel did not have a standby vehicle for emergencies such as this one.) One of the staff explained that the standby vehicle outside was for a guest scheduled to be picked up at the airport. The staff did not even call for an ambulance from a nearby hospital and just gave a very lame excuse that it would take longer to bring Mama to a hospital if we would wait for an ambulance.
Mama arrived with no vitals at the emergency room of The Medical City and was just revived by an ER team of that hospital. Having been deprived of oxygen for more than 10 minutes, she’s now in a coma. It has been more than three weeks since Mama’s heart attack and she has not awakened yet. The hotel has not even bothered to contact us or extend assistance.
Clearly, there has been negligence on the part of this Quezon City hotel. We would like to know the regulations for hotel establishments and who should be held liable if the hotel fails to attend to hotel guests needing emergency treatment.
—DULCE AMOR FERNANDEZ,
dagfernandez@yahoo.com