BENCHWARMER
Ramon
Dacawi
BAGUIO CITY -- A girl
being denied of her childhood by kidney ailment managed to mark her 14th
birthday last Wednesday, thanks to benefactors led by restaurateur Richard Wong
of Luisa’s Café here.
It was the
second time that local mediamen led by Dhobie de Guzman of ABS-CBN prepared for
Mary Joy Ligudon to blow her birthday candle in an annual toast to her courage
in being hooked to the dialysis machine for her four-hour blood-cleansing
session three times a week.
“Celebrating with
her is the least we can do to toast her will to live as normally as any
other child despite her ailment,” Wong said
Mary Joy, a
native of Aguinaldo, Ifugao, has become a “mascot” of sorts of dialysis patients
having their life-time blood-cleansing sessions at the Baguio General Hospital
and Medical Center.
Fourth of
five children of a marginal farmer, was rushed to the BGHMC 2003 for urinary
tract infection when she was three..
Her plight
got the attention of Gina Epe, a native of Bokod, Benguet, who was visiting a
sick relative with her twin daughters, Jordynne and Lordynne.
“My twins
overheard the kid’s father telling the nurse he had no cash with which to buy
the medicine prescribed for his daughter,” Ginha recalled. “My kids asked me
for some cash with which they bought the medicines.”
When the
kid’s condition improved, her father asked if he could leave her under the care
of Gina as they could not cope with the costs of return check-ups.
Gina’s growing
attachment to the girl made her agree, and her family took over Mary Joy’s
treatment. Regular heck-ups, however, failed to arrest her deteriorating
condition. Her kidneys eventually, necessitating hemodialysis for life that
began in May, 2016.
Aside from
covering the costs of her dialysis and occasional hospitalization, the Epe
family is in search of a kidney donor for Mary Joy to enable her to enjoy what
remains of her girlhood and eventually live a normal life.
***
This is Amor
Orpilla’s ninth year as a dialysis patient and she’s trying to figure out how
she survived this far, with hardly a close relative to help her cope with the
costs of being alive.
Now 38 years
old, Amor continues to reach out to government support agencies and private
benefactors, saying “Whatever the costs, life is still beautiful”.
Her “Social
Case Study Report” prepared by the social welfare’s office of La Trinidad,
Benguet, says her uncle Robert is her lone family supporter with a monthly
P5,000 allowance for her dialysis.
“That’s why
I’m asking the help of media, for me to be able to reach out to would-be
Samaritans to help me cope with the rising costs of my maintaining to be
alive,” she said last week.
On top of her
burdens is the unpaid cost of the repair of her fistula, which she had to
undergo as an emergency case so she could continue to undergo her dialysis
three times a week.
“I’ve used up
my Philhealth privileges in paying for the other costs of the operation,
thereby leaving me with nothing to charge to my dialysis treatment sessions.
Philhealth-registered
kidney patients are entitled to 90 dialysis treatment sessions per year. With
six months more before the end of the year, Amor now has to pay for her
treatment sessions, having used up her Philhealth session for her hospitalization
resulting from the repair of her fistula.
People who
can reach out to the patient may ring her cellphone number 09202239912.
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