Failon's wife, Trinidad Etong, succumbs to cranial injury

MANILA, Philippines - Trinidad Arteche Etong, the wife of news anchor Ted Failon, passed away, about 20 minutes after doctors tried to revive her, radio dzMM's vice president for Manila division Peter Musngi reported Thursday night. The 45-year-old Etong sustained a wound in the head in a shooting incident that is being investigated by police. Etong was brought to the New Era General Hospital in Quezon City at about 11 a.m., Wednesday. She stayed at the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and died there minutes before 9 p.m., Thursday. Failon and Etong's relatives were seen crying while two doctors and four nurses were trying to revive Trinidad whose blood pressure had continued dropping minutes before she died. New Era's Dr. Adonis Gascon, a neurosurgeon, said Etong was pronounced dead at 8:50 p.m. “The immediate cause of death is penetrating cranial missile injury and then disseminated intravascular coagulation, and subsequent multi-organ failure," Gascon told radio dzBB. A separate radio report said Failon and Etong's relatives broke into tears after learning about Trinidad's death. An ABS-CBN report also said that the younger daughter of Failon have yet to learn about Etong's death. Musngi described the mood inside the ICU when the doctors declared Trinidad’s death: “Andito si Ted at ang kanyang anak na si Kaye [older daughter]. Hindi tumitigil ang pag-iyak ni Ted. So far napakalungkot ng pangyayari dito sa ICU [Ted and daughter Kaye were here. Ted could not stop crying. So far, there is a very sad mood here at the ICU]." “After mga 20 minutes na pagpupumilit ng mga doctor at iba pang medical staff na i-revive si Trina ay tinigilan na nila. Tinaggal na ang mga intravenous device [After 20 minutes of trying to revive Trina, the doctors and the medical staff gave up. The intravenous devices had already been taken out of her]," he added. Investigators are still at a bind on whether it was Etong who tried to kill herself or another person shot her. Failon's camp claim that Etong committed suicide. However, investigators are finding out if there was foul play in the shooting incident. The bathroom at Failon's residence, purportedly the scene of the incident, was cleaned up by Failon's house helpers, including the Pajero that was used to bring Etong to the hospital. Even the gun used in the shooting incident passed hands. All these made the investigators believe that the evidence could have been tampered. - GMANews.TV