Pajac health center midwife back at work: I followed procedure

SHE followed the procedure in preparing the vaccines before they could be injected to the patients.

Grace Malingin, 56, Pajac Barangay Health Center midwife, said this as she denied the allegations of malpractice against her — allegations that the vaccines she injected on the babies had caused the their deaths days later.

“Nasagmuyo gyud ko. Wa ko kasabot sa akong gibati, pagkahibaw sa nahitabo sa mga bata. Nahugno ko nga ako ilang gi-accused. Di gud to related sa vaccine ang ilang pagkamatay,” Malingin told Cebu Daily News during a press briefing.

(I was shocked, and I did not understand how I felt after knowing about what happened to the babies. I was hurt when they accused me (of malpractice). What happened was not related to the vaccines that was injected on them.)

Dr. Jaime Bernadas, Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) director, in an earlier press briefing, said that initial investigations showed that the deaths were not caused by the vaccine but because the babies had pre-existing illnesses.

Malingin said that she took a week off after she learned about the babies’ deaths and after hearing about the allegations.

She returned to work yesterday (Monday) where she showed how the vaccine was prepared to prove that process was done right.

She said the vaccinations of the babies are done every Wednesdays at the Pajac Health Center.

A day before that they would get the supply of vaccines from the City Health Office.

They are brought through a vaccine carrier and are immediately kept inside the two refrigerators inside the health center.

During the vaccine day, they put numbers of vaccines in a box called vaccine carrier, where they would get the vaccine needed to be injected to the infants.

They also question the parents to learn if the babies are sick before administering the vaccine.

Aside from that, they also get the children’s vital signs, temperature and weigh them.

As for the syringes, she assured that these are sterilized ones and are autolock safety syringes, which prevents any overdose in administering the vaccine.

“Gitarong and gisunod gyud na nako tanan. Di baya ta gusto nga madaot ang pasyente. Ang vaccine dugay nana sa DOH di para makapatay, kundi para protection,” she added.

(I did it right and followed the right procedure. We don’t want any harm to happen on the patients. The vaccine has long been with the DOH and these are for the protection of the babies.)

Malingin has been a barangay health midwife for 33 years and has been a midwife at the Pajac Health Center for 25 years.

She said that her husband, who is a caregiver in the US, and her three children are also in the US — two of them are nurses while the third is a physical therapist.

She also said that she was sad for the families who lost their babies, but she stood firm on her belief that the vaccine was not the cause of the babies’ deaths.