My partner is teasing me for becoming a bleeding heart. I have a ready retort : it only means my heart is in the right place.
Invites have entered my inbox to a series of fund-raising concerts in Quezon City for unborn baby Savannah, a name redolent of grasslands described in Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa. She is the second girl I know to be given that name, the other being the artist Aba Dalena. But I’m digressing.
Raymond Toledo, the baby’s grandpop-to-be, writes that the recent fund-raisers were organized by former classmates of his daughter Vida whom I know from her toddler years at the Community of Learners at its old locations on EDSA and later New Manila, Quezon City. Vida and my daughters Kimi and Ida rode the school bus together and spent after-school hours in day care.
The Vida of memory was fair, well-dressed, well-behaved, bordering on serious for someone that age. Later I worked with her Uncle Rex and found out that she had grown into a basketball player of the school team.
Fast forward to this year. Vida and husband Brian Samson learned from an ultrasound diagnosis that Savannah has congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Raymond reports: “Funds are needed for the medical procedures to save the baby’s life. CDH is a rare condition (one in 3,000 babies) wherein the diaphragm fails to properly close. As a result, part of the stomach enters the space where the lungs and heart should develop. Ideally, microsurgery should be done on the baby while inside the womb (but this can be done only in the US).
"We have recently received word that due to Vida’s nearing due date, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center has declined to send the documents needed for the application of their US medical emergency visas. The reason is that if Vida were to enter labor during transit the hospital would be held responsible for her welfare. Vida’s obstetrician has advised the couple on the possibility of her giving birth here in the Philippines. After birth Savannah would be incubated for at least 48 hours. Surgery would be possible when her condition stabilizes.
Invites have entered my inbox to a series of fund-raising concerts in Quezon City for unborn baby Savannah, a name redolent of grasslands described in Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa. She is the second girl I know to be given that name, the other being the artist Aba Dalena. But I’m digressing.
Raymond Toledo, the baby’s grandpop-to-be, writes that the recent fund-raisers were organized by former classmates of his daughter Vida whom I know from her toddler years at the Community of Learners at its old locations on EDSA and later New Manila, Quezon City. Vida and my daughters Kimi and Ida rode the school bus together and spent after-school hours in day care.
The Vida of memory was fair, well-dressed, well-behaved, bordering on serious for someone that age. Later I worked with her Uncle Rex and found out that she had grown into a basketball player of the school team.
Fast forward to this year. Vida and husband Brian Samson learned from an ultrasound diagnosis that Savannah has congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Raymond reports: “Funds are needed for the medical procedures to save the baby’s life. CDH is a rare condition (one in 3,000 babies) wherein the diaphragm fails to properly close. As a result, part of the stomach enters the space where the lungs and heart should develop. Ideally, microsurgery should be done on the baby while inside the womb (but this can be done only in the US).
"We have recently received word that due to Vida’s nearing due date, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center has declined to send the documents needed for the application of their US medical emergency visas. The reason is that if Vida were to enter labor during transit the hospital would be held responsible for her welfare. Vida’s obstetrician has advised the couple on the possibility of her giving birth here in the Philippines. After birth Savannah would be incubated for at least 48 hours. Surgery would be possible when her condition stabilizes.
"Vida and Brian are still looking for a foundation that would sponsor the cost of Savannah’s treatment.”Expenses are expected to be incurred for: professional fee of the pediatric surgeon, incubation of Savannah, her medicine and her surgeryVida voices a first-time mother’s anxiety:
"I received an email from UCSF Medical Center informing me that my baby is no longer qualified for the intrauterine fetal surgery. It was like having someone throw a bucket of ice-cold water at you. I felt like whatever was left of my faith went down the drain. However, a follow-up email was sent to me informing me that my baby can still be given a chance to live if she gets operated there as soon as I give birth to her, there is a big possibility that she'll live—97 % as compared to the 10 % survival rate that the doctors here in the Philippines kept on telling me.
“If you were on my shoes, if you were a mom-to-be and you have been told that your baby has only less than 10 % chance to live as soon as her umbilical cord is cut from you, wouldn’t you feel like losing your sanity? Wouldn’t you feel like questioning your relationship with God? Why me? In the first place I never took anything that I know will put damage to my body and my baby.
"I’ve been asking myself every day...why me??? Teacher Marj told me that I shouldn’t be asking that kind of question. I should be flattered that God thinks so highly of me, that’s why He thinks that I am capable of handling such a difficult challenge.
"During the Rock The Cradle concert, Alice Sarmiento told my husband that her mom, Ms. Menchu Sarmiento (executive director of PAL Foundation), would shoulder the surcharges and taxes of our airfare in case we’ll be able to fly.
"Right now we're still hoping for a miracle, whatever miracle may that be I just hope that it would allow me to hold Savannah and watch her grow into a person that I can be proud to have as my daughter."
So faithful readers Kimi and Ida, both Community of Learners preschool alumni, pass the word and the hat. Donate funds through Vida’s savings account:
Land Bank of the Philippines, UP Diliman Branch
"During the Rock The Cradle concert, Alice Sarmiento told my husband that her mom, Ms. Menchu Sarmiento (executive director of PAL Foundation), would shoulder the surcharges and taxes of our airfare in case we’ll be able to fly.
"Right now we're still hoping for a miracle, whatever miracle may that be I just hope that it would allow me to hold Savannah and watch her grow into a person that I can be proud to have as my daughter."
So faithful readers Kimi and Ida, both Community of Learners preschool alumni, pass the word and the hat. Donate funds through Vida’s savings account:
Land Bank of the Philippines, UP Diliman Branch
VIDA LOURDES TP TOLEDO
SA# 3076-0324-74
Swift code for those depositing from abroad: TLBPPHMMA
Let’s help Savannah see life.
Swift code for those depositing from abroad: TLBPPHMMA
Let’s help Savannah see life.
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