Victims of a triple whammy that took advantage of their plight, dialysis patients at the Baguio General Hospital are hoping people would reach out to them to give substance to the spirit of sharing this Christmas..
After being told nothing was left in a fun run announced for their benefit, the patients appealed for support to enable them to sustain their dialysis in this season of giving.
Financially squeezed dry by their life-time treatment sessions, many of the patients badly need help to have their fistulas repaired to enable them to continue their dialysis. The doctor attaches a fistula on the arm to enable the patient to be connected to the dialysis machine through his or her vein and artery. Repair of a defective fistula costs thousands of pesos, yet it must be done, or else the patient would be poisoned for failure to undergo dialysis.
Despite the financial and medical stress, life remains beautiful and worth fighting for.That’s why Milagros Lacdao, president of the BGHMC Dialysis Patients and Partners Association prepared a list of patients urgently needing repair or new fistula. People who would like to reach out to them with a contribution to help them raise the needed expenses, may extend support by calling them up.
Mrs. Lacdao can be reached at cellphone 09492839713. They may also course their help through nurse Carmen Bumatnong (09155368289) of the dialysis center.
They may call the following patients: Elmer Ditan of Abatan, Buguias (09079919767) who needs a new fistula and whose parents can not raise funds to sustain his treatment; Princess Arcia Garcia (09101116579, her father, Romeo Garcia, is also a dialysis patient, her mother died, she had been admitted twice at the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital, still fighting and trying to go to school; Roel Cruz (09077198595) of Interior Pacdal who owes his doctor who repaired his fistula; Esther Dumangeng (09484838482), San Carlos Heights, Irisan.
Also needing transport support to bring them to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Metro-Manila are the following: Linda Severo of Slaughterhouse, Baguio (09493024952); Arlien Bagyan, Aurora Hill, Baguio, (09092534678); Manuel Bilog, NJo. 8 sarok, Camp 7, Baguio (0907597030).
These and other patients were looking forward to the “Kalayaan” fun run last June 9 as source of support, only to be told by organizers Bong Reyes, Omeng Fallarme and Eric Coronacion that no net was realized in the effort.
Unknown to the patients, however, some of the organizers were paid “staff salary” of P31,0000, talent fee of P16,000, aside from spending operational expenses amounting to P49,672.
When she learned of the “Kalayaan” group’s fund drive, a female city hall employee made the rounds, soliciting funds for the patiens but reportedly pocketing the same.
Smarting from being taken for a ride, the patients were hit by a triple whammy when one of them, lawyer Roland Salazar, also a dialysis patient, chided this writer and the patients for complaining. He said in part in a tirade that “people are beginning to think that’sobra namang kapal ng mukha natin pagdating sa pagpapalimos ng pera’”.
Salazar also got angry, saying this writer included him among patients complaining over the run organizers’ failure to make good their promise that the race was a fund drive for those undergoing dialysis..
This writer grammatically clarified that Salazar was not included as the patients who complained did not include the qualifier “all”. Despite the absence of the adjective, the lawyer insisted he was included and used it as a reason to criticize the patients who decried their illness was used by some people to raise money for themselves.** Ramon Dacawi.
