The nurse in Cebu Provincial Hospital in Balamban has finally made a legal action against a public school teacher who assaulted her while on-duty.
Nurse Liezel (we’re withholding the full name for her privacy), through the assistance of Philippine Nurses Association – Cebu Chapter Inc., filed a complaint against Mrs. Cynthia Kiamco, a teacher in Balamban Central School, at Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu Province Division.
In a letter-complaint addressed to School Division Superintendent Dr. Rhea Mar A. Angtud, Liezel related the verbal and physical attack she received from Kiamco and her husband while on duty inside the nurses’ station of the hospital on November 14, 2017.
She narrated that Kiamco and her daughter were suffering from acute gastroenteritis and insisted to be admitted to the hospital even though they were ambulatory. The teacher complained several times of the backflow in her intravenous line but the nurse weren’t able to attend immediately because they were attending to another patient ongoing blood transfusion.
The hospital is also conducting random drug testing to its employees, hence the nurse could not proceed to patient’s room right away.
The teacher was upset and became increasingly angry when the nurse refuse to revealed her identity when asked by the former.
The tension led to the teacher vociferously confronting the nurse inside the station, even poking her a few times, and her husband grabbing the nurse’s ID on a larnyard, as seen on viral video that spread online.
Atty. Rey Cris Panugaling, legal counsel of the nurse, said that Kiamco violated the Code of Conduct for Professional Teachers for what she had done to his client.
Aside from the DepEd, a copy of the complaint was also submitted to the Office of President Rodrigo Duterte.
PNA strongly denounces the harassment in a statement, and its Cebu Chapter came to aid of the nurse for any legal assistance.
In previous interview, the teacher refuse to comment on the incident and told the media that they will just answer the charges once it is filed.
Dr. Angtud of Deped also said that her office will “conduct a parallel investigation into that matter” and find out if there are any lapses. (With reports from Sunstar, Photo by PNA)