Tuesday, October 02, 2007 'Barrio' toddler's heart galvanizes barangay to action
CHRISTMAS is still about three months away but the spirit of the season has arrived early -- at least in Barangay Scout Barrio.
The spirit of sharing is mounting, to the point that barangay chairman Ramon Corpuz and his council would be at your doorstep should you beckon them to belt out the carols off-season.
When you ride a jeepney to and from Scout Barrio this week, you will find a donation can at the back of the driver's seat. Members of the John Hay United Operators and Drivers Association led by Andrew Pagasiway swear it's also in keeping with the community's mounting spirit of sharing.
From their community, members of the barangay council have begun making their Yuletide pitch of sorts before personal friends and fellow members of organizations they belong to. The jeepney drivers likewise hoped that passengers will read the label accompanying a toddler's face wrapped around the can -- and then drop a coin or two.
It's all for Rheanne Derricke Cabanayan Briones, she's a three-year-old girl with that unusual, hard-to-spell name. Her sad eyes and frail frame give a feeling something's just not right. She's not growing normally.
The girl was born with a hole in her heart.
Her suffering is triggering community action towards mending and plugging that hole.
Doctors diagnosed it as ventricular septal defect (VSD). It means that there is an opening in the ventricular septum, the wall that divides the left and right ventricles of her heart. Because of the hole on the wall, oxygen-rich blood, normally supposed to be pumped by the left ventricle to the body, also goes to the right ventricle, mixing with oxygen-poor blood.
Symptoms, according to Children's Hospital Boston: Fatigue. Sweating. Rapid breathing. Heavy breathing. Congested breathing. Disinterest in feeding, or tiring while feeding. Poor weight gain.
If not treated, the hospital said, the defect would lead to complications, including lung disease, congestive heart failure, tissue damage on the right ventricle and bacterial endocarditis, a serious illness caused by bloodstream bacteria infecting the damaged tissue.
Rheanne's parents Roderick and Rhea (nee Cabanayan) had prayed for the hole to close on its own, as is the case in some kids with her affliction. Wait until she has turned three, doctors said.
It didn't close. Last January, local doctors saw an enlargement on the left side of her heart. They referred her to the Philippine Heart Center (PHC).
Doctors at the PHC recommended surgery. Roderick, a jeepney driver plying the route to Scout Barrio, was told the procedure would normally cost P600,000.
Immediately, the couple took the long charity queue of patients and relatives from all over the country at the center's Medical Social Service (MSS). After evaluation, the couple was told their counterpart would amount to P200,000.
Immediately, Roderick took the cue from donation boxes and cans he saw installed in offices and establishments. He broached the idea to his jeepney association president Andrew Pagasiway. Why not? Andrew said.
The other week, the couple was at the Urdaneta office of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. Told to try the main office in Quezon City, Roderick decided to look for cans, which he found in Dagupan City.
He bought 20 cans at P60 each and had a machine shop slit drop holes for P100. As her daughter uses up P700 weekly for her maintenance dose, the expense charged to a P7,000 fund coursed by an anonymous Samaritan through bank vice president Rolly de Guzman of RCBC. (Another P2,000 from the fund also helped kidney patient Jane Crispino undergo her dialysis session last Tuesday.)
Newsman Isagani Liporada took time to design the label. "It's not only her picture that's fading," he said.
Late the other week, the Scout Barrio barangay council got wind of the toddler's plight and her parents' efforts towards her healing. They know Roderick quite well, as he, too, grew up in the barrio.
City Social Welfare Officer Betty Fangasan said the barangay could issue a permit for the installation of the donation cans. The barangay council went further than that. They adopted a resolution launching the humanitarian project.
Just like scouts. Just like boys and girls from the barrio.
With dispatch, they came up with an initial P6,000 as per report of councilman Dolf Lachica last Wednesday morning. He showed the list of initial donors. The name of chairman Corpuz was on top of the list.
"With the initial response, including those from our colleagues in the Couples for Christ, the goal has been whittled down to P194,000," Corpuz said.
It's still close to three months before the Yuletide. But Rheanne will have her final pre-surgery check-up on December 7. That's when Roderick and Rhea will express their readiness to have their daughter go under the knife. If so, the girl may spend Christmas in the hospital.
That's why Scout Barrio barangay officials and their community, together with the CJHUODA jeepney drivers, are trying to summon the spirit of the Yuletide this early. They need the lead time to meet the goal.
It's all for Rheanne Dericke, the three-year-old girl who needs to have the pesky hole in her heart mended.
(People who would like to share, so the girl can group up like any normal kid, may call up barangay chairman Corpuz or the barangay council at (074) 442-6237 or 444-8900). (RD)
