BY CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City – The death of a third year high school student here has policemen wondering.
Was 15-year-old John Kurt Flores of Abkasa National High School in Barangay Mandalagan a victim of hazing?
Superintendent Pedrito Escarilla, acting city police director, has ordered an investigation.
Flores died on Sept. 1. His death certificate stated he died of “septic shock.”
To be diagnosed with septic shock, one must have the signs and symptoms of severe sepsis — plus extremely low blood pressure that does not adequately respond to simple fluid replacement, according to the US-based Mayo Clinic, a world-renowned, non-profit medical practice and medical research group based in Rochester, Minnesota.
Severe sepsis is characterized by difficulty in breathing, abnormal heart pumping and abdominal pain, among others.
Escarilla said Flores’ school may be included in the investigation.
Flores’ parents are working abroad. He was left to the care of his grandfather, Kenneth Inventor.
Inventor said his grandson went home from school in pain on Aug. 30.
The boy won’t tell him what happened, said the grandfather.
Inventor said he gave Flores a paracetamol thinking that the boy had a flu.
Later, Inventor said, he discovered that his grandson’s thigh had burns and his buttocks had wounds.
The boy also appeared to be hunching, said Inventor.
Flores vomited blood and was rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital also on Aug. 30. He died two days later.
Inventor said he received information that his grandson had a group in school and it may have something to do with what happened to the boy.
Just this June, Bacolod City resident Guillo Cesar Servando, a second year student of De La Salle-College of St. Benilde in Metro Manila, died from injuries he suffered from hazing.
Twenty members of the Tau Gamma Fraternity suspected to be involved in the fatal hazing was summoned by the Department of Justice./PN
