Tuesday, November 27, 2007 2 boys with hearts to mend need support
THE condition of Roldan Cuyango-an, a 15-year-old boy from Lucnab Barangay, sounds like the title of a four-part saga or a blockbuster film with three sequels: Tetralogy of Fallot.
That of nine-year-old John Lloyd La Fuente of La Trinidad, Benguet sounds less action-packed, more medical but by no means less serious: ventricular septal defect, subpulmonic with aortic insufficiency.
Both of them were born with defects in their hearts that make them tire easily and breathe with difficulty. Doctors had long recommended surgery to fix the malformations, so they may look forward to a future like what normal boys dream of and strive for.
Roldan returned to his second year class last Wednesday at the Lucnab annex of the Baguio City National High School, a day after his last check-up at the Philippine Heart Center. Unless he complains of chest pain or has to go to the doctor, John Lloyd is in his Grade II class at the La Trinidad Central School.
Their parents, ordinary people, would have had them gone under the knife, if not for the prohibitive costs. Their shared consolation is that their boys have gone this far.
Roldan's father, Alfredo, a native of Tadian, Mt. Province, is a construction laborer. His mother, Esther (nee Lubata), is a utility worker at the SLU Hospital of the Sacred Heart. John Lloyd's dad, Ernesto, works as a welder, while his mother takes care of the house and the needs of the boy, his brother and two sisters.
The two families recently took inspiration from the community effort of Scout Barrio here. In late September, their barangay council launched a fund drive for a jeepney driver's three-year-old daughter also diagnosed with ventricular septal defect.
Scout Barrio, led by outgoing punong barangay Ramon Corpuz, raised over P239,000 through the collective response of children, individual and institutional donors who overshot a P200,000 target. The amount will be turned over before the girl - Rheanne Derricke Briones - will go for her final pre-surgery check-up on December 7.
Like Rheanne Derricke's parents had done, the Cuyango-an and Dela Fuente couples are taking the long queue at the Social Welfare Department of the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, hoping the cost of surgery - between P500,000 to P600,000 - can also be whittled down to P200,000 for a more realistic fund drive goal.
As in Scout Barrio, the barangay councils of Lucnab and Poblacion, La Trinidad pin their hopes on a community drive so the two ailing boys can finally breathe easier - like their own.
Manny Gayao, a neighbor of the Cuyangoans, triggered the drive a month ago when he brought Roldan's case to the attention of the barangay council headed by outgoing Punong Barangay Marticio Paguli. Together with the Sangguniang Kabataan, they opened up with a variety show that netted P12,000.
It was not Manny's first initiative. Last year, he led an Igorot cultural troupe to dancing their way through Session Rd., at the height of the Baguio Flower Festival, for a cancer patient in the barangay. He's now working on a folk concert, trying to scout for a venue and contact folksingers who themselves are no strangers to performances for the sick.
Just last week at Poblacion, La Trinidad, the barangay council led by reelected chief Robert Namoro, with the blessings of Mayor Artemio Galwan, started distributing P150 tickets for a dinner-for-a-cause on December 7 at the Jack's Restaurant at Kilometer 4.
As in Rheanne Derricke's case, they know their initial community efforts would not be enough. Yet these moves can trigger generosity outside their confines as in the Scout Barrio experience. They know there are Samaritans out there who - in the words of 19th century essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson - also want "to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived".
For John Lloyd to breathe easier, his heart must be opened up to close a hole on the septum, the wall that divides the left and right ventricle. Because of the hole, oxygen-rich blood in the left ventricle seeps into the right ventricle and mixes with oxygen-poor blood.
Tetralogy of Fallot is not a four-part sci-fi novel or film. It is, for Roldan and his family, a continuing saga of emotional and physical suffering. The tetralogy refers to a four-part defect in his heart. It was named after the 19th century French physician Etiene Fallot, who described this affliction of so-called "blue babies".
It means his heart has a) ventricular septal defect, or a hole similar in Rheanne Derricke's case; b) pulmonic stenosis, or obstruction from the right ventricle to the lungs; c) overriding aorta, in which the major heart artery lies directly over the ventricular septal defect; and d) right ventricular hypertrophy, wherein the right ventricle is abnormally muscular.
Roldan's mother Esther and neighbor Estrella Charog have opened joint in-trust-for account number 1326809302 at RCBC Session Rd. for Samaritans to course their support. Donors may also ring Esther's cellphone number 0928-9515077.
Support for John Lloyd can be coursed through his mother Noemi's Metrobank account number 3 222 189862. Her cellphone number is 0920-7256126. (Ramon Dacawi)
