Mom of teen with brain disease airs appeal

REYMUNDO

Just a month ago, John Nathaniel Reymundo was on his way to taking up legal management at Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila where he planned to try out for the varsity in order to get a scholarship when he suddenly collapsed at home.

He underwent a brain operation the next day after doctors detected bleeding in the left side due to an arteriovenous malformation (defined as a congenital defect of the circulatory system which occurs when arteries in the brain are connected directly to nearby veins instead of normal vessels).

Right now, the 16-year-old teenager’s future seems uncertain because of his condition, his mother Maryrose, a government employee, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

She said that her son had never complained of any severe or chronic pain. He even played basketball in his elementary and high school years at St. Andrew’s School in Parañaque City where the 5’ 8” teenager was a point guard.

Maryrose added that after her son was operated on, she and her husband brought him home where he is now hooked up to a life suction machine and oxygen tank.

“He was supposed to have stayed longer in the hospital but we asked that he be discharged because his hospital bills have ballooned. After 16 days, it totaled P900,000, including doctors’ fees,” she said.

She and her husband, a school bus driver, have been mired in debt since. She said she was appealing for help from Inquirer readers for her son’s maintenance medicine.

Maryrose Reymundo can be contacted at 0917-8053429 or 0925-5053429. Donations can be deposited in her BPI Family Savings Bank (account number 0479174601).