Award-winning I-Witness docu ‘Lapnos’ focuses on the painful lives of burn victims

The documentary opens with a shot of the stark, quiet hallways of a hospital. Suddenly, a child’s screaming voice pierces the silence. He is begging his mother and nurses to put an end to his pain. This is the usual scenario in the Mindanao Burn Center, a unit of the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City that specializes in treating burn patients. The center is one of only four facilities in the entire Philippines that specializes  in treating burn victim. It was the main subject of the "I-Witness" documentary “Lapnos,” hosted by Jay Taruc, which recently bagged a silver medal in the 2012 New York Festivals, an international competition for excellence in television and film programming. “It is the worst form of trauma that can come to you – masunog ka. Ang burns kasi involves what we call pain sensation receptors.... Hundreds of thousands of pain receptors ang involved,” says Dr. Rizal Aportadera, who founded the Mindanao Burn Center.  Every year, the MBC services around 300 poor burn victims from Visayas and Mindanao. Many of the patients live in far-flung areas.   One of them is Christy Menendrez, an 11-year old girl who was injured when a gas lamp exploded in her home. In “Lapnos,” the "I-Witness" team documented how Christy and other patients of the MBC bathe and change their clothes, a painful process for burn victims. The bathing happens every other day. The patients are wheeled into a room and placed in a metal tub called the Hubbard Tank. Here, using a dipper, the patients are bathed with water and soap to clean their wounds and change their dressing. For burn victims, bathing is virtual torture and a dreaded ritual that makes children and adults howl in pain. For "I-Witness" executive producer and director Lea Llamoso, this was probably the most challenging part of the production process. Llamoso has been producing "I-Witness" documentaries in tandem with journalist and host Jay Taruc for the past several years, and has seen her fair share of real life drama. “It was very difficult to document children in pain. They were screaming and thrashing during the cleaning of their wounds. My crew and I could hardly watch. The red skin, oozing with blood was surely not a sight to behold.” Christy’s face is burned beyond recognition. She refuses to look at her old photographs and does not want to be reminded of how she looked before the fire. She refuses visitors aside from her family. The story was picked up by I-Witness after it was pitched by GMA Davao. Upon learning that this was the only burn unit in Mindanao, the team immediately worked on getting permits to gain full access to the facility. Like their pained, impoverished patients, the burn unit itself is need of help. The facility lacks medical supplies such as burn dressing material. The single Hubbard tank is over 30 years old and is seriously outdated. According to Dr. Aportadera, the facility operates at a loss. “No one wants to specialize [in treating burn victims] because it takes too long. It is not rewarding professionally. Rewarding kung maiuwi mo sila, kung mabuhay sila. In terms of monetary rewards, wala. Ang survival dito, awa. People who want to help.” To be able to continue treating and caring for their patients, the burn center relies on donations for supplies and uses alternative burn management and treatment such as honey, salt solution, and vinegar. “You have to redefine ways and means to deliver care, without sacrificing quality of care, at a minimum cost,” says Dr. Aportadera. For the I-Witness team, the documentary is an ode to everyone in the Mindanao Burn Center. Says Llamoso, “Lapnos is about the hardships of both doctors and patients in a burn unit. The screaming children are very painful to watch. But this is also about hope. The children inspired us with their courage.” A few months after Lapnos aired, Christy Menendrez passed away due to sepsis, or an infection on her wounds. --Alyx Arumpac/PF, GMA News Online I-Witness team: Program Manager: Joy Madrigal/Angeli Guidaya-Atienza; Executive Producer and Director: Lea Llamoso; Host: Jay Taruc; Writer: Jayson Santos; Researcher: Tristan Nodalo; Videojournalist: Joe Carlo Morales; Assistant Video Journalist: Carlo Barrios I-Witness airs Monday nights at 11:30 PM on GMA. Follow I-Witness on Twitter (@iwitnessgma) and like them on Facebook (facebook.com/iwitnessgma).