Heart ailment snuffs out boy’s dream

BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi

He was the boy for whom expatriate folksinger Conrad Marzan sang in a coming-home reunion concert with Baguio-Benguet musicians last July 11 at the Kalei’s Bar in La Trinidad town.

Ten-year old Delson Lipawen was there on concert night, but had to leave early. He was too feeble and sleepy his dad Delmin had to carry him to the ride to their shanty at the Baguio side of Longlong, a strawberry-producing mountain community.

He was the boy with lips and nails so blue you’d think he just had helped himself with a bowl of blueberries or mulberries – as a normal kid his age is wont.

Delson was a “blue baby”, born with four defects in the heart that pediatric cardiologist Gerry Acosta of the Baguio Heart and Lung Diagnostic Center diagnosed as Tetralogy of Fallot. The frequency of occurrence is 400 per million live births.

Dr. Acosta had recommended open heart surgery at the Philippine Heart Center “as soon as possible to prevent onset of complications”.

That’s why Conrad, Bubut Olarte, March Fianza and other pioneers on the local folk and country music scene teamed up with La Trinidad mayor Greg Abalos in mounting the concert, They netted P30,000 that enabled Delson’s mother Susan to bring the boy for check-ups at the PHC in Quezon City.

Delson was set for his final check-up on Dec. 13 for the surgery the following day. The boy had heard of the schedule during his last visit to the center and had been looking forward to it since. Last week, he verified from his mother and was told his heart would be mended before the Christmas break.

His hope for medical deliverance carried him through morning of last Tuesday, a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha or the Festival of the Sacrifice. The day celebrates the willingness of Abraham or Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as proof of his obedience to God.

Delson, too young to understand what the holiday was all about, knew what it was to be an obedient son. Her mother recalled how the boy spent the morning feeding the few chickens on the yard and cooking legumes in the hut the tenant farming couple built on a steep mountainside
By mid-afternoon however, the boy broke the quiet of the day with a sudden wail: “Maul-ulawak, mama (I’m dizzy, mama).”

Susan rushed to cradle her boy, shouting for help. It took time for neighbors to find a ride as the shanty is out of highway. By the time they reached the hospital, Delson’s weak heart had given up.

That evening, school principal Carmel Meris of Longlong Elementary School learned of the tragedy and passed on the news to those who knew the boy. He was the boy in the fourth grade who promised his mother he would graduate in two years.

“That’s why he asked that we stay put here in Longlong instead of returning home to Buguias (Benguet) where he was born,” his mother said.

In keeping with that wish, Delmin and Susan decided to have the final rites here. Somehow, they and neighbors pooled enough for a pig offering, in keeping with Igorot tradition and even the Christian version of Abraham’s sacrifice.

Last Friday afternoon, the pinewood casket, assembled without iron nails, was lowered on a hillside grave the men of the neighborhood dug the day before. The grave was lined with hollow blocks reinforced by cement and steel bars with a little help from expatriate karate teacher Julian Chees.

This Monday, Robinson, Delson’s eight-year old brother, will walk the same familiar path up the highway and then turn left towards the Longlong Elementary School. for his third grade class. It will take sometime for him to get used to hiking alone.