Surviving on empty
>> Tuesday, August 14, 2012
BENCHWARMER
Ramon
Dacawi
BAGUIO CITY -- After figuring out the costs for the long haul, a
public school teacher found herself with no choice but to go public about her
grim battle against breast cancer. She’s keeping her fingers crossed Samaritans
out there would respond and prop her up in her four remaining chemotherapy
sessions.
Magdalena Osias, 46, will have her third of six chemo
rounds this Monday, sending her husband Primo, a retired soldier, scrounging
for funds to cover the cost pegged at P20,000 per session.
Her fight, began last January after the biopsy, is definitely for
family. The couple has Pamela, 5, in kindergarten; Paulyn May, 14, in second
year high school; Melvin Philip, 16, in senior high. Marilyn, the eldest
at 18, is a sophomore in bachelor of science in biology at the St.
Louis University.
Social worker Ana Codley wrote that the couple met in 1990 at the
Philippine Military Academy where Primo was then assigned as an enlisted man.
Magdalena, a native of Natonin, Mt. Province, was smitten by the soldier from
neighboring Barlig town, same province, while she was teaching at the Golden
Heart Pre-School inside the PMA.
After exchanging vows in 1993, they rented a house in Kias and
later slowly built their own at Pinesville, Fort delPilar where they presently
reside. To build the home, both took on loans, the repayment of which continues
to whittle down her teacher’s monthly pay and his pension as a retired army
master sergeant.
Until cancer struck, theirs was typical of an average or
normal Filipino couple quietly pursuing dreams for family, making do even with
seemingly unending financial woes.
“Life for the family went on smoothly until (Magdalena) was
diagnosed (for) breast cancer early this year,” Codley wrote. “She was operated
on and her right breast was removed. She was strongly recommended to undergo
six cycles of chemotherapy.”
As the social worker noted, Magdalena’s hospitalization, surgery
and initial two cycles of chemotherapy left the couple with no choice but to
publicly appeal for support.
The medical outlook is, however, good.
Magdalena’s condition, diagnosed as “invasive ductal carcinoma”, is
still at Stage 2-B.Samaritans out there can ring her up at cellphone
number 09057721061 or visit the family at Block 22, Loty 8,
Pinesville, Fort del Pilar, Baguio City. They may see her at the Fort del Pilar
Elementary School where she teaches the fifth grade kids after she has
recovered from her third chemotherapy this Monday.
Meanwhile, two gentle souls who requested anonymity had responded
to another mother’s call for help to sustain her twice-a-week and life-time
hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure.
Renal patient Milagros Tait, 57.was ecstatic when the aide of a
government official handed her P10,000 last Monday morning. The amount will be
good for five dialysis sessions. Make that six,
as another career official added P2,200, the cost of
one session at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.
She and several others are due to line up among hundreds of others
from various parts of the country before dawn of August 22 at the
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in Quezon City.
All hope to obtain guarantee letters notifying BGHMC to charge to
PCSO eight or nine sessions for each patient. The two officials’ reaching out
to Tait also gave relief to Shoshin, a small foundation in southern
Germany which has been extending support to indigent patients here
since 2004. Shoshin, founded by former world karate champion Julian Chees, handled
the cost of Tait’s dialysis the other week and used up its remaining
funds here for dialysis patients Amor Orpilla and Mary
Grace Binay-an and public school teacher Elenita Soriano who is battling
cancer.
Also in dire straits is Sabino Adian, a 42-year old
marginal vegetable farmer who is turning blind due to complications of
diabetes. With the aid of his wife, Mary Ann, he groped his way Tuesday to the
renal center of the BGHMC for his twice-a-week dialysis treatment. Originally
from Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, the couple recently moved to Baguio, taken into
the house of a pastor, after Sabino was diagnosed for kidney failure, also a
complication of diabetes, and needed life-time dialysis treatment.
Until last Friday morning, Sabino and Mary Ann were at a loss on
how to raise P2,2000 for his next dialysis session. Hoping against
hope, they went to the BGHMC anyway and sat on the waiting bench outside the
dialysis room, waiting for whatever sign.
Otherwise, Sabino was determined to skip treatment and survive the
week-end on empty. Many other patients in such
predicament now and then pass over, sometimes with dire
consequences.
Shoshin learned and texted Mary Anne to have Sabino on the line of
patients scheduled to be attached to the blood- cleansing machine that
afternoon.
Readers who can pool P2,200 for Sabino’s next schedule
on Tuesday or Friday may ring up Mary Ann at 09397288672.
(e-mail:mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments)
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