Jolo Revilla’s condition improves

MANILA, Philippines – The condition of Cavite Vice Governor Jolo Revilla continues to improve, nearly a week after he was rushed to the hospital after suffering a gunshot wound on the chest.

Earlier on Tuesday, March 3, the Revilla family’s spokesman, lawyer Raymond Fortun, said Revilla was in “critical condition,” with his health showing signs of “deterioration” days after he entered the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Asian Hospital and Medical Center on Saturday, February 28.

But based on the latest medical bulletin issued by the hospital on Thursday, March 5, the vice governor “continues to show improvement.”

“Chest tube output has started to clear and was only 120 ml in the last 24 hours. He is on his third day of intravenous antibiotic, and he has remained afebrile for more than 24 hours,” chief medical officer Joven Jeremius Tanchuco said.

Oxygen support has been reduced, and Revilla’s bowel movement has already normalized. Meanwhile, he has been advised by doctors to move around the room to help improve his condition, the bulletin added.

However, Revilla’s mother, Cavite Representative Lani Mercado, said that a tube is still draining blood from the vice governor’s lungs.

Tanchuco also said that Revilla had “one episode of low grade fever” a day after he was admitted to the hospital. He also suffered a fever on Tuesday, with atelectasis (a complete or partial collapse of the lung) and a lung infection as the likely causes.

On Sunday, March 1, Revilla underwent a surgical procedure, where doctors removed half a liter of blood from his lungs. He was returned to the ICU after the two-and-half hour operation.

The Revilla family earlier said the vice governor accidentally shot himself while cleaning a Glock handgun in their residence on February 28.

Three days after the incident, the vice governor was able to meet briefly with his father, detained Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr, after the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan allowed the senator to visit his son. – Rappler.com