Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines鈥擳he health condition of former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to deteriorate because of recurrent dysphagia, or difficulty in swallowing solid food, her doctors said.
In a March 5 medical update, Arroyo鈥檚 doctors at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) reported that the detained former leader continues to lose weight because of poor appetite.
The medical bulletin, signed by Dr. Martha Nucum, the chief of the VMMC鈥檚 Medical Professional Staff who heads Arroyo鈥檚 medical team, was submitted last Monday to the Sandiganbayan 1st Division by defense lawyer Modesto Ticman.
Arroyo has been confined at the VMMC where she has been on hospital arrest on plunder charges following three major cervical spine operations at the St. Luke鈥檚 Medical Center in October 2011.
Her present diagnosis is 鈥渃ervical spondylotic radiculopathy, degenerative lumbar spine disease, and postcervical spine decompression with instrumentation.鈥濃��Cynthia D. Balana