Batangas ex-gov remains in critical condition

(Updated 3:51 PM) Former Batangas governor Armando Sanchez remained "semi-comatose" after suffering from a stroke while on the campaign trail. Dr. Isagani Bolompo, Sanchez’s family doctor and medical spokesman, said in a press conference at the Mary Mediatrix Medical Center in Lipa City that the damage to the brain was so severe Sanchez might have only a "5 to 10 percent survival rate." Doctors performed a three-hour brain surgery on Sanchez after he was rushed to the hospital before lunch on Monday. "The procedure done is decompression craniotomy with evacuation of intracranial hematoma," Bolompo said in a medical bulletin, a copy of which was obtained by GMANews.TV. Sanchez is considered under a semi-comatose condition because of the sedatives administered to him, Bolompo added. The stroke could have been triggered by over-fatigue, a low sugar level, and hypertension, doctors said. "[These conditions] led to the rupture of the vessel in the brain leading to hematoma in the temporo-parietal of the brain with subarachnoid hemorrhage," Bolompo said. Doctors said the next 72 hours or three days of Sanchez's stay at the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) are considered the "most critical period." Earline Borlongan, a customer relations officer of the MMMC, told GMANews.TV in a phone interview that Sanchez has had a history of hypertension and had suffered a mild stroke in 2004. Former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, whose son Erwin is Sanchez's running mate, said he would be holding an emergency meeting with their coalition regarding the former governor's health. Sanchez belongs to a coalition of the Nacionalista Party and the Lakas-Kampi-CMD. "By this time, attending physicians can come up with a medical bulletin and, whatever it is, they should give us freedom to have access to it," Ermita said in an article on the government-run Philippine News Agency. Sanchez will be attempting to reclaim his post as governor from former Lipa City mayor Vilma Santos, who succeeded him in 2007. Santos, a former Laks-Kampi-CMD member, is now running under the Liberal Party. Sanchez was a two-term mayor of Santo Tomas (1998-2004) before becoming Batangas governor from 2004 and 2007. On Monday, Sanchez's lawyer Ferdinand Topacio confirmed reports that Sanchez had to be rushed to the hospital while in the middle of his campaign. "Ang latest na balita ko na-heatstroke po shortly before lunch. Nangangampanya at medyo nahilo so dinala sa hospital, pinagpapahinga po roon (From what I heard Sanchez suffered from a heatstroke shortly before lunch and was rushed to the hospital)," Topacio said over radio dzMM on Monday. - LBG/RSJ, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV