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Thursday, May 08, 2003
A medical mission sponsored by God
By Jenara Regis Newman
The streamer read: St. Martin de Porres Free Medical Clinic / Medical Mission / Commission on Service / Archdiocese of Cebu / Sponsored by God. And in the poor parish church the streamer was at, in Mantalongon, Barili, a free medical clinic sponsored by God or anyone else must have been truly heaven-sent.
According to Dr. Faustino C. Froilan, a retired cardiologist who headed the medical mission, this was the second time for his group to be in Mantolongon. Unlike other medical missions, this one is low-key, without fanfare but done with a lot of dedicated work. Also, it is Cebu-based and, as the streamer said, archdiocesan based. And for those whose cases need follow-up, Dr. Froilan is available to them in the St. Martin de Porres Free Medical Clinic located along P. Gomez street (within the Caritas Compound), Cebu city. He is there Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. He said he limits his patients to 45 a day, the better to attend to patients, and also to see to it that his supply of free medicine would last. To ensure that the patients are truly in need, they are first screened by nuns like Sister Zosilyn and Sr. Gli of the archdiocesan Commission on Service and then given their priority numbers so the conduct of the clinic would be orderly.
Free medicine too at this free medical clinic? Dr. Froilan explained that if the group would not give free medicine, the medical clinic and the medical mission would be useless because both target the truly poor of the community, people who would not be able to afford the cost of the needed medicine. So he holds his free clinic in the city only if medicine is available.
When his supply runs out, he and his wife Zenaida go back to the US on a “begging” mission, going cross-country to ask his doctor friends to contribute the sample medicine they regularly receive to the clinic’s cause. At first, he said, he would be here for three months and would be out for three months on his mission abroad. But lately, he has been able to stay here longer, for about six months, before he needs to go abroad; his friends there already know what he expects of them every time he turns up.
Dr. Froilan, who hails from Basey, Samar, started the free medical clinic in 1999, shortly after he retired from cardiology practice at the Morris Community Hospital in Illinois. Medical missions followed soon after, with mission sites determined by Msgr. Boy Alesna of the Commission on Service.
Asked what he has found that ails his patients the most, Dr. Froilan said hypertension, diabetes, viral infections, parasitism mostly in children, pneumonia, and skin diseases. This list guides him in what type of medicine to be on the lookout for during his mission abroad.
A medical clinic may be a one-man operation. But a medical mission, seeing 200 or more patients in a day, needs more personnel, so Dr. Froilan found out after conducting medical missions alone. So in subsequent missions, Dr. Froilan has been joined by like-minded colleagues. In Barili, the mission team included Dr. Froilan’s wife, Zenaida, retired pediatrician Dr. Carlos Fernandez, semi-retired surgeon Dr. Liberty “Spanky” Tablante and his wife Aida, retired surgeon Dr. Jose L. Basa and his wife, Dr. Wilhelmina M. Basa, newly licensed physician Dr. Brian Lim and his mom, nurse Gingging Lim, the archdiocesan Commission on Service’s Elving Elegino, Sisters Zosilyn and Gli, volunteer nurses Marciana Muñeses, Virginia Wommack, John Paul Maglasang, Mark Steve Ian Taladua, Pie Ocampo and Joeper Caballo.
Dr. Froilan says he does not earn anything at the clinic, nor do the doctors and nurses who join in the medical missions, after all being “sponsored by God” is its own reward. Now if only Cebu-based doctors see this group as examples to follow, Cebu will soon become a healthier place for everyone.
(May 8, 2003 issue)
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