Girl with broken bones airlifted to Cebu

By: Juan Escandor Jr. - 11 years ago

Girls in Daanbantayan town in northern Cebu are still in a daze in the aftermath of the supertyphoon ‘Yolanda.’ CDN FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – An 11-year-old girl in pain for 16 days due to multiple fractures she suffered when her home collapsed at the height of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international codename: Haiyan) on November 8 finally found relief when a foundation here airlifted her to Cebu City early Saturday morning.

Riza Flores, a resident of a village in Burauen, Leyte, suffered broken bones in various parts the body but had to endure the pain for two weeks because there was no place where she could be attended to medically, said Agnes Quimson, a neighbor of the Flores family who had been attending to the girl.

Quimson said Riza is one of the six children of a widow named Salvacion Agustin Flores who could not give the injured girl the attention she needed because the woman had to take care of her other children.

Getting medical help would be the best birthday present for Riza, who turns 12 on Nov. 27, said Quimson.

Riza had been continuously crying but had been given only some pain relievers as hospitals here were not equipped to handle the complicated orthopedic surgery she needed.

Quimson said she brought Riza to the Burauen District Hospital on Friday but they were advised to transfer her to the East Visayan Regional Hospital in Tacloban City, which, in turn, also told them it could not give her the treatment she needed.

With nowhere else to turn to, they went to the Remedios T. Romualdez Medical Foundation that facilitated the airlifting of Riza to Cebu City and her admission to the Chong Hua Hospital on Saturday.

The RTR Foundation has been responding to the needs of the victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda with medical missions in Tacloban and several other towns in Leyte.

It is partnering with several local and international organizations and conducting medical missions in hard-to-reach areas.