Mystery shrouds babe’s death

By: Jennifer P. Rendon

A TWO-month-old boy died of still undetermined cause morning of June 25, 2019 in Iloilo province.

Totoy (not his real name) had hematoma when he was rushed to Governor Niel D. Tupas Sr. District Hospital in Barotac Viejo town.

Police Captain Genesis Roque, Banate police chief, said they received a call at around 7:27 a.m. Tuesday from hospital authorities informing them that an infant was proclaimed dead on arrival.

Since the infant had hematoma on his body, the physician referred the case to the police.

However, “the family turned down request for a medico-legal investigation,” Roque said.

In the absence of an autopsy, Roque said they could not help but guess that negligence may have led to the child’s death.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that the child was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Police believe that the child may have died because of blunt force trauma.

“Pwedeng hinagis ang bata or nauntog ,” Roque said.

But earlier reports claimed that the infant’s father, Wilmar Tanalgo Sr., came home drunk Monday night.

It was alleged that he may have accidentally pinned the child as he went to sleep.

But Tanalgo claimed that a scorpion may have killed his son.

He claimed to have first brought the boy to Banate Vice Mayor Joje Undar, who is a doctor, after a relative told him that blood was oozing from his son’s nose.

There was also a visible bite marks on the baby’s right leg.

The victim was already stiff when brought to Undar, who then advised Tanalgo to bring the child to the hospital.

Tanalgo denied that he accidentally pinned the child, who was sleeping beside his wife.

He explained that a pillow, his wife, and their two other children separated him from the infant.

In fact, he even fed the child around 11:00 p.m. of Monday before returning to sleep.

At 4 a.m. the following day, he allegedly went out of the house and slept near the shoreline.

Prior to the boy’s death, the father claimed they saw two scorpions as they were cleaning their house.