Boy, 14, can’t go home if bills are unpaid

THE 14-YEAR-OLD boy who was shot in the head by another minor in a billiard hall in barangay Pasil is ready for discharge from the Cebu City Medical Center, said the hospital chief.

The aunt of Mark Rey Abaño said medical staff told her the boy was in stable condition and could go home after they pay hospital bills for his head surgery.

“We can’t be discharged if we don’t pay the balance,” Marie Ann Abejo, 33, told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano.

Abejo said the hospital bills are supposed to be shouldered by City Hall through the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicine Program (CHAMP) as assured by Cebu City Michael Rama but a P17,000 unpaid bill for the surgery is still pending.

Abejo said her nephew’s left side his body is still paralyzed and he is still undergoing therapy. The bullet entered the right top of his head and exited.

“He (Abaño) is okay and he is up and awake. . .His vital signs are stable.” said Dr. Gloria Duterte, head of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) in a separate interview.

She said part of the boy’s brain may have been affected and caused the partial paralysis but said she still has to talk to Abaño’s neuro-surgeon, Dr. Jaime Perez for details.

“I still need to talk with his doctors before I can say that he can enrol in school next month.” Duterte said in Cebuano.

The 11-year-old boy who shot Mark Rey was turned over by social workers to the care of his grandmother for the meantime. He said he didn’t mean to harm his schoolmate after pointing the gun at him.

Police are still looking for the young shooter’s father, who reportedly gave his revolver to his son as a “gift” just before the May 19 shooting incident. / Reporter Rhea Ruth V. Rosell