Mom, 50 struggles to survive; seeks support for dialysis

By Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- However you look at it, life is beautiful, and kidney patient Martina Pacatiw Macario continues to struggle to survive and live it the fullest.

Reason enough for her to ask this writer to feature her among the growing number of kidney failure patients asking that their stories be told, hoping a reader or two would reach out to help her cover the prohibitive costs of her thrice-a-week hemodialysis treatment in order to survive.

The 50-year old mother of five, originally from Tadayan, Pudong, Kapangan, Benguet, had squandered 20 years of her life in prison for trying to make a quick buck through sale of marijuana.

“I was released on June 29, 2010 after 20 years and one week in prison,” she recalled.

“While (she) was serving her sentence, she made effort to send money to her children who were then in the custody of her parents in Kapangan,”noted social worker Charity Mabini who made the social case study report.

In May, 2013, misfortune struck. She was rushed to a hospital and then to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center where doctors found her kidneys had totally failed.

To survive, she is now on thrice-a-week hemodialysis at the medical center, from 6 p.m. to 10 pm, on Mondays and from 11 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To cut on travel costs, she dozes off late Monday evenings while sitting on a pew of the medical center’s chapel for the next session Tuesday morning.

It would be expensive and tiresome for her to travel home to Tayug, Pangasinan where her husband lives and then return for Baguio for her next session on Wednesday.

“I’ve been used to this schedule,” the former inmate said.

All her children are now married and trying to raise their own families. “They cannot extend support anymore to Martina since their incomes are not even enough to meet the needs of their own families,” social worker Mabini said.

Notwithstanding what she had undergone and her present and pressing difficulties, the will to live pushes her on, reason enough for her to ask that her plight be also written about, hoping a Samaritan or two would reach out to her.

Those who can help Martina may ring up her cell phone number – 09994699940. –