Bank account for ailing girl/ Woman heeds mother’s plea

REACHING OUT

 An ailing Baguio girl’s brave struggle to restore her dreams for a normal life has inspired four women and a village chief here to team up and bolster her chances for a kidney transplant, the costs of which she will never be in a position to shoulder.  

Former city prosecutor Gloria Agunos, retired assistant city prosecutor Evelyn Tagudar,  regional director Helen Reyes-Tibaldo of the Philippine Information Agency, city social welfare and development officer Betty Fangasan and barangay captain Thomas Dumalti opened Wednesday a joint bank  account into which Samaritans can course their support to the girl – 24-year old QuakelynLisayen.

Quakelyn, named for having been born five days after the July 16, 1990 killer earthquake that devastated  Baguio, has been undergoing twice-a-week hemodialysis treatment since she was diagnosed for kidney failure in October, 2013.

The eldest of four children, the girl lost her father early to the same ailment afflicting her now. That loss was  reason enough for her frequent travels the past few months to the Philippine Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City to work out a part-charity surgery,  how financially improbable it might be.

The institute gave her a P430,000 cost estimate  for the organ recipient work-up, kidney donor work-up , transplant operation and donor hephrectomy.

The figure does not include her life-time medication costing some P2 to P3 million to prevent rejection of the implanted kidney.

The financial odds, however, eased up as Jason, her 20-year old brother, offered to be the organ donor, triggering the family’s hope he would medically qualify and that the siblings would hurdle the tissue compatibility matching to allow the transplant.

First to respond was Baguio Rep. NicasioAliping Jr. who set aside P100,000 to set the tone of the fund drive. His elder brother, retired U.S. Navy officer Bob Aliping, also offered his “Boba Songs” CD recording of his original folk and country compositions for sale, with the proceeds going to Quakelyn’s fund.  

Moved by  Quakelyn’s blind courage and her family’s resolve to help her pull through the medical crisis, Agunos, Tagudar, Reyes, Fangasan and Dumalti resolved to support the fund drive by helping raise the initial amount needed and secure it through  the joint account opened at the Bank of the Philippine Islands-Harrison Branch here.

For Samaritans out there, the BPI account number is 0563845279.

Through bank staff member Jennifer Tagudar, the ad hoc committee made an initial deposit of P26,000 coming from the two donors.  The first Samaritan, a bespectacled man who just identified himself as “a Baguio boy”, handed P15,000 through this writer at the lobby of SM Baguio. Second was Pradeep “Paul” Lalwani who coursed P11,000 through Agunos. A third donation of P1,000 from the Quijencio family was coursed through the dialysis center staff of the Baguio General  Hospital and Medical Center.

Others who would like to follow suit may contact the following cellphone numbers: Agunos (09176556201), Tagudar (09175069481), Tibaldo (09175088534), Dumalti (09465971520), this writer (09167778103).

Quakelyn, who was forced to quit a course in information technology due to fund constrainst,  had served for three years as volunteer rescuer of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee, and for two-years, as “job order” in the same outfit.

“Her three-year sacrifice as unpaid rescuer also inspired us to rally to her personal cause for a new lease on life, as the  shoe is now on the other foot,” Agunos said.

Her ad hoc committee will bond with home-grown folksingers and the Irisan Barangay Council in mounting a folk and country musical concert for Quakelyn on March 1, tentatively at the covered gym of the Quirino Elementary School in Irisan.

The musical treat will feature  former Foggy Mountain Band soloists  and now expatriates Conrad Marzan and MhiaTibunsay, pioneer concert-for-a-cause artist Bubut Olarte, ArsenMarzan,  March Fianza,  Liza Noble, Alfred Dizon, Dick Oakes, Alma Angiwan and the Regional Police Band at Camp Dangwa, Benguet. .

Whoever she is, a woman from the Pinsao area of Baguio recently asked that a P3,000 cash gift she received last Christmas be used for medical support.

“I got this as a yuletide gift but the season is over and there are people out there in need of it more than I do,” she explained last week.

She asked that it be used for a child in need, on condition that her identity be not revealed.

That was when Emilia Villanueva, a jeepney driver’s wife and mother to four children, was figuring out how to raised P2,000 needed for the behavioral assessment of her youngest, 10-year old RheyvienJave.

The kid, now a fourth grader at the Quezon Elementary School, was in medical crisis when he was one-year old in 2006. Test showed his ureter was abnormally positioned, leading to reflux of urine back to the kidneys.

As a result his kidneys were being damaged. Doctors advised for him to undergo surgery at the  National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City.

Responding to Emilia’s appeal, people from all walks raised over P50,000 for the surgery. Among them were siblings Ellana and Bryan, children of Joel and Emiliy Aliping; Nikolas, the son of Baguio folksinger Conrad Marzanand wife Pilar; Baguio businessman Alfred Go, dentist-couple Eric and Patricia Padeo, former punong barangay  Peter Wasing; city councilor Peter Fianza and others.

Before the surgery at the NKTI, the baby pulled off a miracle of sorts. Hours before the operation, the surgeon ordered a re-test to confirm the long-held diagnosis and the need for surgery.  To his surprise, the damaged kidneys had subsided to normal size.

“He then told me he could not explain how it happened and  that he was canceling the operation, saying   my baby’s illness could already be handled through medication,” Emilia recalled.

Later, the kid was diagnosed for attention deficient hyperactive disorder that needs to be managed for his safety and development. “He also needs occupational therapy to improve his hand grip so he can hold his pencil and be able to write,” Emilia added.

 Thanks to the  Samaritan, the kid had his behavioral and development assessment last Wednesday.

The remaining P1,000 from the donor’s Christmas gift will be used for another kid in need. – Ramon Dacawi