ONCE upon a time, I had a series of X-Files published in the UP Manila Bagumbayan. The tales came from members of the community and denizens of the campus, including health practitioners. The author of Case 06 is Solomon W. Spyke, MD. The file name is: In Your Dream.
It was during the final years of the Cory Administration that the incident occurred. Nobody could remember exactly when it happened but it was a story that made the rounds of the Ortho department for years.
There was a patient who we will call Mr. Z. He suffered from diabetes. He was admitted to the Ortho Ward because of a non-healing wound on his foot, a condition that is called “diabetic foot” in the profession. It had progressed to such a degree that the residents called it a “diabetic leg,” and there was no other course of action but to cut it off. To make things worse, his diabetes was so bad that it was threatening his life. The amputation had to be done as soon as possible.
The operation was done on a Friday night. Standard procedure required that the amputated leg be submitted to Surgical Pathology but since it was a weekend, Patho was closed. So, the resident decided to keep the leg in the freezer in the Ortho Residents’ Call Room. He would submit it to Patho when it opened on Monday.
As for the patient, he was getting worse. The infection from the necrotic leg had already spread even before the amputation was performed. The patient’s condition steadily deteriorated. The next day, he died.
‘So, the resident decided to keep the leg in the freezer in the Ortho Residents’ Call Room. He would submit it to Patho when it opened on Monday.’
The usual things happened after that. The relatives wanted to take the body home as soon as possible. The resident tried to convince them to let an autopsy be done. The relatives refused, as is usually the case. The doctors could keep the leg, but the body goes home with them. End of story.
Or so they thought.
That night, the resident who performed the amputation had a dream. He dreamt of Mr. Z standing in front of him with his remaining leg, asking for the return of his missing extremity. The dream seemed so real, the resident told himself, when he woke up. But it was just a dream, and it was forgotten in the course of a busy day.
The following night, Sunday night, the resident had the same strange dream. This time, Mr. Z was more insistent in asking for his missing leg. It seemed a lot more real, and a lot scarier. The resident woke up in the middle of the night and resolved that he would submit that damned leg to Patho first thing in the morning. The sooner he got rid of that thing, the better.
The next day, the doctor was surprised to find Mr. Z’s relatives waiting for him in front of the Ortho Department. He wondered why they were there. To have him sign a medical certificate perhaps? “Doc, hihingin sana namin ‘yung binti nu’ng pasyente namin eh,” one of the relatives explained. The resident replied that he was about to submit the leg to Patho. That was the procedure.
“Parang awa n’yo na, doc,” the relatives pleaded. “Dalawang gabi na kaming hindi nakakatulog eh. Sa panaginip namin, kailangan daw niya ‘yung kanyang binti. Hindi raw siya papayag na malibing na wala ang kanyang binti.”
The resident took a few seconds to recover from shock. Then, he did the most obvious thing. He went to the call room, opened the freezer, got the leg, and stuffed it into a plastic bag. Without another word, he gave the leg to the relatives.
The dreams stopped after that and nothing was heard from the relatives since.
Like that? How about Case 03 (Baby Vampire) or Case 02 (The Angel of Death)? S.W. Spyke and I have more X-Files for you. Happy Halloween!
In other news, I was contacted by the Office of the Army Chief Historian. The Philippine Army intends to establish a monument for the Hunters-Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Guerrillas at the Headquarters Philippine Army as a tribute to the gallantry and selfless sacrifice of the young soldiers who were instrumental in the liberation of Fort William McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio) during World War II. To which we (Hunters-ROTC Historical Society) conveyed our assent, support and snappy salute.
In 2019, the HHS in coordination with PVAO conducted pilot testing of the WWII teaching module developed by UP Manila professor/affiliates of HHS. The HHS worked closely with the Department of National Defense beginning with “Images of Valor,” a project of PVAO. HHS was invited to, in effect, field test its module for the teaching of WWII at several universities nationwide by Usec. Mapagu, DND. Starting October 2019, HHS worked with Reps. Kit Belmonte and Cabochan to draft HB 5123 and submitted it to the Committee for Secondary Education under Rep. Roman Romulo who also submitted his bill (HB 5791) for tertiary education to the Committee on Higher Education under Rep. Mark Go. That bill passed on final reading as HB 9850 for the teaching of WWII in the tertiary level and subsequently relayed to the Senate but pandemic restrictions prevented HHS from following up with the Senate’s Committee on Higher Education. So, the bill lapsed. In the 19th Congress, Congressman Roman Romulo has refiled the bill as HB 0933 and has been approved at the committee level.
