Ailing Bacolod City frontliner dies at home

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said hospitals here can no longer accommodate coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 patients, just like the frontliner who died at his house.

The patient, Jesryl Bancaya, died in his house after no hospital in Bacolod and even as far as Cadiz City could accommodate him as these facilities reached full capacity due to the upsurge in COVID cases

“We are in a dilemma,” Familiaran told Aksyon Radyo in an interview Monday.

Familiaran expressed frustration after the frontliner died as he was not immediately attended to because of the numerous emergency cases in hospitals in the city.

He said that while the frontliner was considered an emegency case, there were about 10 other emergency cases lined up before him and only one doctor was attending to the patients.

Familiaran said that while he is the vice mayor and may have some influence in requesting accommodation for an emergency patient, it was to no avail.

Bancaya, a technical staff of Bacolod Councilor Israel Salanga, oversaw the orientation of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here.

Familiaran said Bancaya was a suspected COVID-19 patient who initially suffered shortness of breath.

Reports indicated that Bancaya had a seizure Sunday and was brought to several hospitals in Bacolod but they could not accommodate him since these were overwhelmed with patients.

He was then brought to a hospital in Cadiz City but was also turned down.

In his Facebook page, Salanga, chairman of the Action team on Returning OFWs (ARTO), described Bancaya as a “frontliner, a partner in crime, travel buddy, a best friend, a brother and his number one supporter.”

Familiaran said that “we are facing a deadlier virus” as Bancaya had no co-morbidities.

Another suspected COVID patient, a relative of a city official also died after suffering the same fate as Bancaya, he noted.