IN THE wake of another mega-contract LeBron James signed with the Lakers, I wrote him. In a Hail Mary shot, I asked whether he could set aside some amount from his basketball contract to enable me to undergo kidney transplant to restore my life to normalcy.
Fellow journalist Dhobie de Guzman of ABS-CBN posted the letter that immediately drew reactions of support. My daughter Veronica, who has to be in the United States with her mother, noted I never played basketball but am hooked on football. Others who know me were excited, almost proud of my temerity, hoping the long shot would sink in.
The numerous reactions, mostly by fellow Baguio natives and Cordillerans, shored up my hopes the letter would reach him and his staff. Notwithstanding my age (68) and medical condition, life is still beautiful, prompting me to seek help from one of the greatest athletes ever.
It’s a long shot, as I wrote the basketball star, hoping he would see through my desperation and respond. In writing him, I created hope, something we dialysis patients need most. Now, I have reason to nurse hopes he would reply. People in my condition know pretty well how precious it is to muster and nurture hope, however far-fetched or next to impossible it may be.
That’s why during one of our meetings with fellow dialysis patients at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, I offered to see them when I’m a hundred. The common reaction was expected. How can a dialysis patient hope to be a centenarian when, because of his condition, he may soon find himself taken in for good by pneumonia, heart attack or any other fatal consequence of having destroyed kidneys.
How dim the possibility may be, I still hope to be still alive by then. By then, I told fellow dialysis patients, medical technology would have advanced, enabling me to go to the drug store and buy a tiny dialysis machine the size of a microchip I can attach to my side and it would cleanse my blood far better than do the giant machines I’m hooked to four times a week.
That’s why I have to be there when advances in medical technology would allow me to live a normal life.
While waiting for that day, I wrote LeBron James, hoping he would see through my desperation and respond to my request for him to have me undergo kidney transplant so I would be able to see my two grandchildren grow.
E-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.