Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Editorial: An inspiring story
SCANNING Monday's issues of some Manila-based dailies, the reader got the usual dose of distressing news about our times. Consider the following captions of various stories: Chief Justice slams RP war on terror...RP environment in precarious state...Woman hurt in Cotabato roadside bomb incident...Lawmaker faces raps over fertilizer scam...5 dead in Sariaya shootout...dramatic rise in cancer cases in Asia...Palaro cheats warned...Vice-mayoral bet escapes slay attempt.
Amid all the introductions to dismaying bits of information, there stood out this one: Improbable 5th birthday for RP twins.
The immediate effect on the reader was as if the clouds had parted, with sunshine bursting forth upon the earth and a fresh breath of wind sweeping across a once desolate landscape. Suddenly, all is right with the world.
The story was about Filipino twin brothers Carl and Clarence Aguirre, who were born joined at the top of their heads, celebrating their fifth birthday at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York last Friday. Until 2004, Carl and Clarence could not sit up, stand straight or look each other in the eye because of their unusual link. But here, by the miracle of modern medical science, they were romping about like healthy kids.
But the twins are far from being normal. They wear helmets to protect the holes where they were once attached until reconstructive surgery replaces the missing bone. While they still lag behind kids their age in terms of physical and verbal development because of the time spent on their backs, doctors look forward to the day when they shall have become completely normal.
The miracle of it all is that experts give twins conjoined in such fashion only 1 in 10 chance of surviving to age 5. Born in the Philippines, the twins were allowed to go the United States to receive medical attention relying on charitable donations. Montefiore and its surgeons have donated millions of dollars worth of free care to the twins and the Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla has given the family free housing and therapy.
As long as there are still good samaritans like those who have been reinventing the lives of Carl and Clarence Aguirre, and those of their parents as well, there will always be inspiring stories like theirs to gloss over disturbing news items that assail the reader's senses on a daily basis.
