Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia shows to the press the X-ray image of her fractured hip. Garcia slipped in the bathroom of her rented condominium in Manila. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
Cebu 3rd District Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia will have to miss the last three regular sessions in Congress next week because flying to Manila would be detrimental to her recovery.
“I had perfect attendance for the first and second regular sessions. This time, I can’t,” she told reporters in her home in Sun Valley Subdivision, Cebu City, yesterday.
After three sessions next week, the House of Representatives will go on recess until June.
It was the first time Garcia spoke directly to the media about her hip surgery following her discharge from Chong Hua Hospital last Wednesday.
The congresswoman was using a walker and was noticeably limping when she approached reporters waiting in her living room.
She said she had partial hip replacement surgery after figuring in an accident in her rented condominium in Manila on January 21.
Garcia said she was rushing to catch her flight back to Cebu that morning when she missed a step inside her bathroom.
She slipped and landed on the left side of her body, even banging her head on the tiled floor.
Garcia said she didn’t want to tax her children by having them come to Manila, so she still took her 11 a.m. flight back to Cebu.
At the hospital, doctors told her that her head was fine, but she had an impacted fracture in her left hip and recommended surgery.
Her operation, which involved the replacement of the bone connecting her thigh to her hip with stainless steel, was scheduled on Saturday and lasted for one hour and five minutes.
She was discharged from the hospital last Wednesday. Her surgeon is optimistic she’ll make a full recovery after one month, she said.
“A physical therapist has been coming to the house. I was told that I’ll be able to do away with the walker in two weeks,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the only discomfort she feels is the throbbing pain of her stitches.
She was hopeful that after a month, she would be able to go around the towns in the 3rd district in time for the campaign period.
The former three-term governor is seeking reelection under One Cebu against Liberal Party’s bet Provincial Board Member Grecilda Sanchez.