By Alex P. Vidal
“Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.” — Steven Pinker
AT around 10:04 o’clock in the morning December 21, Marlon “Boy” Doronila walked toward the terrace of his four-story apartment in Queens to voluntarily bring the white envelope that arrived from Aetna, a New York-based health insurance company, containing an “important care plan information” addressed to his landlady Gloria Porras, in her sleeping area but he teetered.
“Oh no, (I realized) I can’t go there,” Doronila, 67, hissed.
His reluctance was prompted by what he suddenly “saw” inside the landlady’s sleeping area: “He is there; that’s him sleeping,” Doronila emphasized, pointing to a folding bed.”
The “he” Doronila was referring to was allegedly the person (a male) responsible for inflicting physical harm on him that resulted in “severe” pain on his neck and upper left shoulder.
“(If I enter there) he might scream and utter unprintable at me again,” feared Doronila, who has roots in Capiz but grew up and studied in Paco, Manila in the Philippines.
He placed the white envelope on the dining table located a few meters away from the landlady’s sleeping quarters.
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A few minutes later, Doronila grimaced in pain and pressed the back of his head and upper left shoulder. “I need a pain killer,” he sighed. “The pain (pointing to the area near the cervical spine) is getting worse.”
He was contemplating on going back to the nearby Elmhurst Hospital emergency room “because that’s what I was told to do just in case the pain (on my neck and upper left shoulder) would worsen.”
Complaining of “pains on the shoulder, neck, arm,” Doronila was treated in the same hospital’s emergency room by Dr. Megha George and Dr. Jacob Ziff when he went there on December 17.
The physicians’ diagnosis was “assault.”
Doronila underwent the following imaging tests: CT cervical spine without contrast, CT head without contrast, CT maxillofacial without contrast, DX chest AP only.
The doctors gave Doronila the following medications: acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Motrin), lidocaine 5 percent (Lidoderm), and methocarbamol (Robaxin).
Doronila said while in the emergency room, two New York Police Department (NYPD) cops interviewed him where he confirmed the alleged assault.
If attacked again, the cops told Doronila to call 911. He was released from the hospital early morning on December 18.
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In that afternoon, Doronila met up with a bosom friend, Mike, a fellow Filipino based in Queens, to narrate his ordeal. Mike briefed Doronila of his basic rights and goaded him to file a formal complaint if the alleged physical maltreatment continues.
At around 8:57 o’clock in that evening, Doronila, holding a cellphone, was seen running down from the third floor of his apartment. He called 911.
“He (the alleged assailant) wanted to attack me again,” Doronila narrated to the female 911 operator. “Please send somebody to rescue me. He’s going to kill me.”
Doronila’s alleged assailant, who lives in the same apartment, “has been physically and verbally abusing me for three years now.”
According to Doronila, who is single with only his niece, Cathy, who lives in another apartment, as someone he could reach out for immediate assistance in case of emergency, he worried a lot for his safety.
Fifteen minutes after the 911 call, two NYPD cops arrived.
Before they went upstairs, one of the cops asked Doronila, “who is your attacker and how old is he?” Doronila snapped back, “His name is Michael, and he is 33.”
“How about you?” the cop continued. “My name is Marlon and I’m 67,” Doronila replied.
Upstairs, Michael swore “everything was alright.” After talking to Michael, the cops left.
Doronila insisted he wanted to stay away from Michael “for my own protection because I’m already elderly and with some health issues.” The cops told him to “ask your landlady to separate you and Michael.”
“I worry for my sister’s reaction if she will know what happened to me,” sobbed Doronila, who arrived in the United States in 1995. “She cares for me so much since my mother died when I was 21.”
Yassi, 74, Doronila’s elder sister, lives in Canada and was scheduled to arrive in New York with her dog Chimbo, for a Holiday vacation. They are scheduled to met on December 23.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
