Manila - It`s been more than one year since 26-year-old Victoria Deraco died in a government-run hospital in the Philippines after she was given the wrong blood type in a procedure that was supposed to save her life.

Deraco had just given birth by caesarian operation when she was transfused with type A blood at the East Avenue Medical Center in December 2004. The procedure was done three times before attending doctors realised that her blood type was B.

Due to the mistake, the young mother slipped into a coma and died in January 2005.

Her family is now locked in a court battle against doctors, medical personnel and officials of the East Avenue Medical Center to seek justice for Deraco`s death - one of a growing number of horror stories resulting from medical negligence or incompetence in Philippine hospitals.

But the fight has not been easy since the Philippines does not have a medical malpractice law that would govern such cases and make efforts by complainants to run after negligent or incompetent practitioners less tedious and expensive.

Under the current system, victims of alleged medical malpractice have to file separate cases in criminal courts for penal sanction, civil courts for damages, and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for suspension or revocation of licenses.

"This system contributes to the delay, if not denial, of justice for the victim," Congressman Rufino Biazon noted. "The legal costs, not to mention the time element involved, makes the physical effects of medical incompetence and negligence more intolerable."

Alarmed by mounting appeals from victims, Biazon has proposed a Medical and Health Care Liability Law that would consolidate the cases to be filed by victims to just one and set standards for complaint investigations and penalties.

"Under the medical malpractice law, there is only one process that would be undertaken, that if the accused is found guilty, the court can impose a fine, a penalty of imprisonment and even remove the license of the practitioner," he said.

Many victims are hoping that the proposed law would help ease the pain of losing loved ones to negligence or incompetence by making it easier to seek justice.

"Right now, I still don`t know where to start, how to make them pay for my baby`s death," lamented Rebecca Oclaret, whose five-month-old daughter died after a nurse mistakenly injected her with adrenaline in October in the same hospital where Deraco died.

"I really need all the help I can get to fight for my child," she added, when told about Biazon`s proposed law, which is actually not the first to be filed in the Philippine Congress.

Prior to Biazon, several other lawmakers had proposed a medical malpractice law in the country amid such high-profile cases as Deraco`s death. But so far, none of the bills have gone past committee hearings.

"There is a strong lobby by medical practitioners against the bill because they will be the ones who will be affected," Biazon said. "There really is an organized resistance, and it goes from the national to the local levels."

He added that some members of Congress are either medical practitioners themselves or owners of hospitals and clinics, making it harder to push for the new law.

Those opposed to the proposed medical malpractice laws have warned that such a move would drive up health care costs in the Philippines, where many Filipinos are already hard up to afford visits to doctors and basic hospital services.

Ethelyn Nieto, an undersecretary of the Department of Health and a physician herself, said many of the proposed laws would also impose prohibitive penalties that will deprive practitioners of their livelihood.

"This will increase the cost of medical practice," she said. "Doctors will have to pay so much more for insurance, and patients will suffer because they have to pay more as far as professional fees are concerned, just like in the United States."

Nieto added that the medical community views the proposed malpractice law as a class legislation that would discriminate against doctors and other medical professionals.

"Medical practitioners swore that we will do everything possible to save the life of a patient, but sometimes accidents happen and we also don`t like that," she said. We are also human beings like others, and as they say, to err is human."

But Biazon noted that his proposed law also addresses concerns about higher health care costs because it puts a cap on the amount of damages that can be awarded to a victim, a feature that was added after studying situations in other countries such as the US.

Experts would also review cases before they are formally filed in court to weed out nuisance suits.

Biazon stressed that since medical professionals have "the power to extend or end lives," they "should perform and live up to the expectations of the general public."

"In this field, to err on the right side should be the only choice," he added. "The incidence of negligence by medical professionals is alarming and this is happening once too often and we should do something to prevent it."