Slapped student's kin won't accept PNP findings on death

The family of Francis Gumikib, the Grade 5 student who died after being slapped by his teacher, cannot accept the findings that it was a rare condition that killed him.

According to Jun Veneracion's report on "24 Oras," the medico-legal team of the PNP Forensic Group said Francis’ death was caused by the bleeding and swelling of his brain due to a rare congenital disease.

Francis' father Eusebio said this was not possible as the victim had never been admitted to a hospital before he was slapped.

“Yung sampal lang talaga po dahil yung anak namin, simula’t sapul… ‘Yung anak naming hindi pa naoospital yun eh. ‘Yung naospital siya [nung nasampal] siya natuluyan,” the victim’s father said.

(It’s just the slap... Our son has never been hospitalized.)

The police further added that if the slap was really the cause of death, the symptoms would have manifested within three days as opposed to Francis’ case where he was able to attend school and play basketball before falling ill five days after the incident.

“Kung ganun nga kalakas at naka impluwensya nga ang physical na ginawa ng teacher na yun, dapat magkaroon dapat ng external manifestation like pasa, sugat, [o] gasgas. Doon sa kwan, wala,” Antipolo Child Protective Services Chief Police Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Manongdo said.

(“If what the teacher did really was that strong and impactful, he should have had external manifestations like bruises, wounds, or scratches. From the victim, there is none,”)

“This will be unpopular, pero hindi ko maatim na bilang hepe ng imbestigador na magfa-file tayo ng homicide,” he added.

(“This will be unpopular, but I cannot fathom, as the chief investigator, the filing of a homicide case,”)

While the PNP said that the results have already been double-checked by a group of experts, the family is welcome to reconfirm the results with other agencies such as the NBI.

Meanwhile, the teacher involved in the slapping may still face charges for alleged child abuse.

The teacher has yet to release a statement, while the Department of Education chose not to comment on the autopsy results.

The PNP-Forensic Group on Wednesday said that the rupture of the blood vessel in Francis' brain was “non-traumatic in nature."

At a press briefing, the PNP-FG said that the cause of death was “intracerebral hemorrhage and edema.”

“With regards to the layman's term of the cause of death, intracerebral, cerebral edema is pamamaga po ng utak, and intracerebral hemorrhage is iyong pagdurugo po sa utak,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Maria Analiza dela Cruz, the chief of PNP-FG medicolegal office in Rizal.

(With regards to the layman’s terms of the cause of death, intracerebral, cerebral edema is the swelling of the brain and intracerebral hemorrhage is the bleeding in the brain.)

“Ang nag-cause pong intracerebral hemorrhage o iyong pagdurugo sa utak ay iyong pamamaga po sa utak at ang naging cause naman po ng intracerebral hemorrhage is iyong titingnan po natin, kaya sinabi natin na non-traumatic ang nature noong pagputok ng ugat na iyon, is mostly it is a rare condition,” she added.

(The cause of the intracerebral hemorrhage or the bleeding in the brain is the swelling of the brain and the cause of intracerebral hemorrhage is we are looking at, that is why we said that the rupture of that blood vessel is non-traumatic in nature, is mostly it is a rare condition.)

Dela Cruz said it was the most common cause of intracerebral hemorrhage in the age group of the patient.

“At first is asymptomatic tapos biglang na lang po. Fragile po itong mga ugat na iyon na it can rupture or burst spontaneously. In other cases naman po, meron pong tension on that particular anomaly doon sa utak,” Dela Cruz said.

(At first, the patient is symptomatic and suddenly they will become ill. These blood vessels are fragile and they can rupture spontaneously. In other cases, there is tension on that particular anomaly in the brain.) —Jiselle Casucian/NB, GMA Integrated News