This is it! Since I haven't heard anything from Belo Medical Group for the past months despite my numerous attempts to reach her (letters, phone calls,TV interviews and Radio) DR. Vicky Belo still chose to ignore me.
Like I said, I will do whatever is necessary to get justice! I will get my justice one way or another and I won't give up the fight! I almost died! My kids almost lost their mother because of your lies and malpractices, no mother on her right mind will let you get away with it!
Soon I will reveal another client who almost died because of a simple facial from one of your clinics (flawless) I'm still gathering the data and HIS approval.
***copy of the Demand Letter***26 August 2009
DR. VICTORIA BELO-HENARES& DR. FILIPINO BUNAGBelo Medical Group
Suite 901 Medical Plaza
Amorsolo St. cor. De la Rosa St.
Legazpi Village, Makati City
Dear Ms. Belo:
We write on behalf of our client, Ms. Josefina Norcio, your former patient who had two butt augmentation procedures performed at your clinic in 2002 and 2005, both of which were failures and nearly cost our client’s life.
Despite your personal and professional assurances of the safety of the procedure, Ms. Norcio suffered a life-threatening infection as a direct result of said procedure. You personally warranted and represented to our client inside your Tomas Morato clinic that the substance/filler, Hydrogel, to be introduced in the course of the elective surgery procedure was “safe and permanent”.
As it turned out, the said Hydrogel substance which you have utilized in more than “600” butt augmentation operations as disclosed by your counsel, Atty. Adel Tamano, had no approval for use from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) from the very moment of your clinics’ marketing and introduction of said procedure to the public.
Relevantly, Hydrogel is a banned substance for use in butt augmentation procedures in Europe, United States and China. Furthermore, you have not subjected the same to medical safety tests before your market introduction and promotion thereby reducing to guinea pigs your patients who were enticed by your shameless, untruthful and deceptive advertisements.
Worse, the doctors under the employ of the Belo Medical group who performed the said procedures not only botched both operations which then resulted to the asymmetry to her buttocks but also were not duly certified plastic or cosmetic surgeons , and thus miserably lacked the experience and expertise to perform said procedures which you peddle to the public.
Dr. Belo herself is not a certified plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon, rendering her incompetent and unqualified to market and/or perform said procedure and/or make ethically untenable and even incredible warranties or assurances as to the safeness of either procedure or substance.
Adding insult to injury, despite your being immediately informed of the infection, and the severe medical complications arising therefrom and pleas for help from our client who was in a life-and-death situation at St. Lukes’s Hospital, professionals from the Belo Medical Group – particularly your Dr. Filipino Bunag -- added to her distress and indignity by treating her representatives rudely, brushing off her pain and deliberately providing a medical advice that would increase the chances of our client’s death.
In fact, you maliciously withheld the transmittal of our client’s medical records despite our client’s persistent demands – medical records which our client’s doctors urgently needed to help them map out a surgical strategy to save our client’s life.
More than this, your Dr. Bunag had the temerity and the nerve to require our client – as a condition to receive any form of assistance from BMG -- to be discharged from St. Lukes hospital and to be admitted in your Tomas Morato clinic which does not have the medical facilities to address her grave medical condition. Had our client followed the advice of your Dr. Bunag, our client’s doctors at St. Luke’s conveyed their opinion that any transfer of Ms. Norcio away from the hospital would have killer her.
For falsely pretending to possess the qualifications to perform such medical procedures and employing deceit in the introduction of an unapproved and dangerous substance/filler such as hydrogel, for material failure to act with the requisite care in addressing the health and medical concerns of a patient, and for failing to comply with even the minimum standards of your profession, to be forthright in the hidden dangers of the butt augmentation procedure and other similar and complementary acts which resulted in severe physical, emotional, mental and financial damage to our client, Ms. Norcio has directed the undersigned to initiate the appropriate criminal, civil and administrative cases against you to vindicate her rights and address the damages resulting from your felonious, reckless and malicious behavior as well as your self-evident acts of medical malpractice.
As a result of your failed Hydrogel Butt Augmentation procedure, Ms. Norcio is now permanently disfigured. She requires at least 2 years of medical rehabilitation, experiences daily pain, and needs a costly reconstructive procedure to be undertaken in the United States. Her pelvic area is susceptible to life-threatening risks which can arise from as mundane a physical activity as sitting down or laying face-up on the bed. Since hydrogel also migrated and dispersed to other parts of her body and could not be completely removed from her body without compromising her life, Ms. Norcio is now exposed to the risk of having to undergo regular surgical operations to completely flush out said substance/filler from her system and thus be made to go through the same harrowing ordeal as she had just experienced a month ago..
Formal demand is therefore made upon you to pay our client in the amount of TWO HUNDRED MILLION PESOS (PHP 200,000,000.00) within TEN (10) days from receipt of this letter, for all her medical expenses, loss of income, opportunity costs, medical rehabilitation and reconstruction expenses, pain and suffering, attorney’s fees and other costs. Furthermore, our client demands the immediate transmittal of any and all medical records in your possession as regards the two butt augmentation procedures which were performed at your Tomas Morato clinic in 2002 and 2005.
Kindly favor the undersigned with your immediate response; otherwise, we shall be constrained to employ the full force of the law to cause your arrest, conviction and imprisonment; the revocation of your license to practice medicine and further cause the closure of all your clinics which our client considers as Death and Disfigurement Factories.
Respectfully yours,
ATTY. ROBERTO GUEVARRA
