BAGUIO CITY (Mar. 27) — It may have been the best gift for young Baguio couple Bernabe and Amy Diaz on Easter Sunday– their baby girl Ayesa Bea Mae.

Their first born from three-time miscarriages in the past would have been a dream come true. But the world seemed to have forsaken them.

Ayesa Bea Mae was lifeless. Worse, headless.

To doctors of the government-run Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, it was an abnormality. Still in a deafening silence over Wednesday last week’s delivery of Ayesa Bea Mae Diaz, physicians claim to be waiting for the result of the autopsy.

The National Bureau of Investigation-Cordillera is probing it, 24 year old gasoline attendant Bernabe said with a very heavy heart’s tone. We will have to wait for the autopsy and results of the investigation, the young father said in a very deep tone.

But for the newborn’s mother, the loss was as if it was the end of the world. If she was dead inside, it would have been easier to accept, Amy said. But she was a healthy girl as shown by ultrasound examinations and the ECG before the delivery, she claimed in Filipino.

Amy narrated that she began to feel laboring Wednesday night (April 17) and was rushed by her husband to the hospital minutes before midnight.

After being readied for a normal delivery, Amy began to labor hardly. One attendant, she claimed in Filipino, “named only as Edward forcibly pulled the head of my baby”.

Literally, in a bone-tingling tone she said, “I saw my baby’s head roll to the floor”. And the baby’s body was left inside Amy’s womb.

On-duty government hospital obstetrician-gynecologists had to do a cross-section (CS) operation to remove the remains of the baby’s body inside her womb.

Bernabe and Amy’s buried their dismembered daughter on “Sabado de Gloria”, the time when the Christian world was joyfully celebrating the rising of Jesus Christ from Roman persecution.

Questions left unanswered

We were told that our child suffered from an abnormality, Amy said though in disbelief because the baby was in the pink of health as evidenced by prior ultrasound exams and ECG.

The certain “Edward”, who according to Amy was the one who pulled off her baby’s head, was later found out to be Edward Dulawan, a medical intern at the hospital. He is a son of Ifugao Provincial Health Officer Mary Jo Dulawan.

The elder Dulawan however belied her son was ever involved in the delivery procedure. She claimed, the dead newborn’s mother could have mistaken seeing his son doing the procedure because as an intern at the pediatrics department, they are physically present at the delivery room but only to take over the newborn baby after those in the obstetrics-gynecology. “He could not have been involved,” Dra. Dulawan firmly insisted.

Doctors (not from the BGH) when sought for professional opinion explained that a medical intern’s function is only to assist the resident physician, never becomes the primary.

“He used his bare hands against my baby’s head, not a forcep,” Amy however said in Iluko with certainty. That certain “Edward” was the one attending the delivery, the still lamenting 22 year-old mother added.

At the blotter of the Baguio City Police Station 5 which has jurisdiction over the hospital area, crime blotter entry number 1063 on March 18, 2008 at around 4 AM indicated that the Bernabe couple accused a certain “Edward” as the one who “forcibly pull the head of the baby as indentified by Amy”.

Nordis tried several times to seek answers from BGH Ob-Gyne chief Teresita Agbanlog, but she seemed to have opted to remain mum pending the NBI’s official autopsy report.

They told us it may take a month to finish, Bernabe said, apparently in anticipation of a findings in their favor. He hinted about his worries that they cannot match the “influence” of the BGH doctors.

A government physician also at the BGH speaking on conditions of anonymity said what attending physicians could have done after finding difficulty in normally delivering the 2,400 gram baby is to temporarily fracture the shoulders of the baby for it to move out of the womb and “normalize” the fracture after it got out.

Apparently, attending government physicians including the medical intern were also astonished with the situation. “They tore off their name tags,” Amy said.

“Patapos na kasi nun duty ni Dra. Cariaga, kaya in-endorse ako ke Dra. Dela Cruz (Marietta),” Amy added.

The intern”Edward” was the one attending the delivery of my baby, the young grieving mother reiterated.

They were scampering to call Dra. Cariaga after sensing the disaster, Amy added.

After the “talk” around the hospital of the Wednesday “disaster” during the Holy Week, doctors and other medical practitioners apparently tried to stop talking about it.

The Bernabe couple who lost what could have been “their best gift yet” and their relatives however are worrying what could happen with Ayesa Bea Mae’s case.

If there will be a fight, it would be a battle for justice between David and Goliath. # Ace Alegre for NORDIS