Death of a doctor

On Oct. 26, I was awakened at dawn by piercing stomach pain. Rushing to Asian Hospital and Medical Center, I was diagnosed with appendicitis. Fortunately, the appendix had not yet burst.

That evening I was prepped for an appendectomy. By 7 p.m. I was wheeled into surgery. By 10 p.m. I was awake. Before 11 p.m. I was in a private room, with all medications administered intravenously.

Two days later I could take a shower by myself, after all the IV medications were used up. At 1 p.m. I checked out.

The next day I played the piano for two hours straight. On Monday I voted in the barangay elections and briefly visited a mall. By Tuesday I was back in the office, although moving slower.

This quick recovery was possible because I had a laparoscopic appendectomy. Three small incisions were made, to insert a probe and then pull out the appendix.

My mother had an appendectomy when I was in grade school. She has a long scar to show for it, and I remember it took her so much longer than four days to recover enough to return to work.

So I am grateful that laparoscopy, still rather rare pre-pandemic even in our top hospitals, has become widely available for numerous surgical procedures.

And I am eternally grateful to the highly competent doctors and nurses who cared for me, from emergency to post-ops, led by surgeon Laren Saguros.

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We need more doctors, nurses and health professionals. Even at Asian Hospital, there was an ad at the lobby for various types of nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists and midwives.

The long lines in most hospitals indicate the dire need for doctors (general practitioners and specialists alike), plus nurses and other health professionals.

And it’s distressing to learn that one of our top orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Benigno “Iggy” Agbayani Jr., died of a heart attack last month.

Surely the stress of finding himself in jail following a conviction for reckless imprudence resulting in physical injuries contributed to the heart attack.

In an open letter to his fellow doctors dated Sept. 16, two weeks before he died at the Manila City Jail on Oct. 5, Agbayani cited the need “to protect our beloved profession better against predators and