Monday, November 12, 2007 Samaritans enable 3-year-old to spend Christmas in hospital
SINCE they were told of her condition, Roderick and Rhea Briones had been praying for their only child - three-year-old Rheanne Derricke - to be admitted to a hospital. When people heard, they made the young couple's wish come true.
Rheanne, who was born with a hole in her heart, can now spend Christmas at the Philippine Heart Center. Doctors have set her next appointment on Dec. 7 to finalize the schedule to mend her ailing heart.
Samaritans made sure of that as they overshot a P200,000 goal needed for her surgery, a month ahead of the deadline set by barangay officials of Scout Barrio who launched a fund drive late September.
The barangay council has decided to end the fund drive as the target has been reached," said barangay chairman Ramon Corpuz Thursday afternoon. "The response to this community effort has been tremendous, leaving us all inspired."
The week before his announcement, the fund was at P124,000, as marked by a red arrow pointing up on the side of a black and white pole graph the barangay council had set up along Loakan Rd., beside the barangay hall, so the public could monitor the progress of the fund-raising.
A big break came last Monday, when the toddler and her parents were guests at the taping of "Game Ka Na Ba?" the television game show hosted by Edu Manzano over ABS-CBN. The cast of the sci-fi comedy 'Super Inggo', led by Bobby Andrews played for Rheanne, winning P90,000 for her family.
Of the amount, the game show producers will deposit P50,000 at the PHC where the kid will be operated on, her father said. As per the show's 'Pangkabuhayan' showcase, the remaining P40,000 will be in grocery items to stock up her mother's mini-store at Kias barangay where the family stays at the house of Rhea's father.
When the couple returned to Bagio, Roderick, who grew up in Scout Barrio, learned the graph's arrow had shot up to P130,000, excluding the TV show winnings.
Roderick said he first saw the graph early October while plying the Scout Barrio jeepney route. He saw on top of the pole his kid's picture, together with an appeal: "Please help bring color to my life."
"I stopped and just cried, overwhelmed by the effort of the barangay council and the community to help save our daughter," he recalled.
Last Thursday, Enrique Sobrepeña, director of the Camp John Hay Development Corp., invited the family so he could meet the girl. When he learned from the couple the drive was still P20,000 to go, he wrote a check for P30,000 that exceeded the target.
The total amount raised would be known this week after the donation cans have been opened. Support, coursed through an in-trust-for Rheanne bank account, has also been updated and pledges have been received and counted.
"The P200,000 goal will cover only the couple's counterpart for the surgery," Corpuz noted. "It's heart-warming that people just responded spontaneously so other expenses can be shouldered, as the kid will have to recover in the hospital for over a month."
Doctors diagnosed Rheanne's condition as ventricular septal defect. The hole in her heart is on the ventricular septum, the wall dividing the left and right ventricles. Because of this, oxygen-rich blood, which the left ventricle pumps to the body, also seeps into the right ventricle, mixing with oxygen-poor blood.
The doctors advised surgery as soon as possible before serious complications would develop. Told surgery would normally cost P600,000, the couple took the long charity line of the Heart Center which whittled down the cost to P200,000.
To try to raise 200 grand, Roderick and Andrew Pagasiway, president of the John Hay United Operators and Drivers Association, asked the barangay council for a permit to install donation cans in their members' units.
Instead, the barangay council adopted a resolution to spearhead the drive, making it a community effort. The officials wrote friends and institutions and installed the pole chart on the highway. The fund drive was on.
An anonymous donor paid for 20 donation cans from a P7,000 charity he coursed through bank vice-president Rolly de Guzman of RCBC. Newsman Gani Liporada designed the label and a local printer ran copies of the sticker wrapped around the cans.
Kids of the Camp John Hay Elementary School were some of the first to respond. They scrimped on their allowance spending to be able to fill up and submit the first can in a week's time.
"We will acknowledge the latest donors, as we did the earlier contributors, when we turn over the amount to Rheanne's family," Corpuz said.
The turnover will coincide with his bowing out as barangay chief. He and friends toasted the completion of the fund drive yesterday, his 54th birthday.(Ramon Dacawi)
