Offers of help ease parents’ worries

ERNESTO Omaya and his wife no longer have to worry about their hospital bills, after local officials offered to shoulder the expenses.

But Ernesto, 43, worries about their quadruplets because his wife refuses to breastfeed them.

Marcelina, 38, has been acting strange in the hospital, he said. Once, after seeing the quadruplets, she told him she doesn’t want to see the babies again because they looked so thin.

“Gusto na gyud siya mopauli. Ang iyang huna-huna tua sa mga bata sa Argao (She wants to go home. She always thinks about our children in Argao),” he said.

Jaybee Binghay of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 said the hospital’s social worker should check the condition of the mother and provide her counseling.

“Anyone who gives birth is exposed to emotional and physical stress,” Binghay said.

Ernesto said Marcelina worries that they might stay for several months in the hospital.

Argao Mayor Edsel Galeos visited the couple yesterday at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City.

He gave Ernesto P4,000 and assured the couple the town will help pay the bills and medicines for the quadruplets.

Galeos also helped Ernesto convince his wife that they cannot go home while their babies remain in the intensive care unit.

The mayor assured the couple that he will instruct the officials of Barangay Osmad, where the family lives, to look after their three children.

Binghay said the DSWD can help provide food for the family.

Ernesto said five persons went to the hospital yesterday morning to give him cash assistance, ranging from P1,000 to P2,000.

Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu Province, 3rd district) and the Capitol will extend assistance to the couple.

Wilson Ramos, administrative officer of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), said the Capitol will assist in meeting the mother’s medical needs.

The office will also help procure milk for the four newborns, as well as food, transportation funds and hospital fees.

In the meantime, Ernesto said he and the nurses have to ask for breast milk from other mothers.

“Maulaw na ko sa ubang mga mama (I’m embarrassed to keep asking the other mothers),” Ernesto said.

Josefa Geverola, Marcelina’s 62-year-old mother, said two of Marcelina’s siblings have expressed their desire to raise one of the babies.

Ernesto said he and his wife still have to decide on this.

Marcelina gave birth to the quadruplets—two boys and two girls—last Wednesday.

The first baby came out while they were still at home. Marcelina delivered the rest at the VSMMC, more than 65 kilometers away.

The babies, each weighing less than a kilo, were born premature by two months.

The Omayas have three other children, ages 16, 11 and seven.

According to Ramos of the PSWDO, there are guidelines for the release of the assistance needed, like the presenting the medical abstract and doctor’s prescription, for the Capitol to help patients.

The PSWDO will give a promissory note for the beneficiary to let the hospital know that the Province will take care of the expenses.(With Flornisa Marie M. Gitgano)