BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—“Where am I? Why did they open my heart?” Two-year-old Leah Jane Peligro asked her mother when she opened her eyes after doctors patched a hole in her heart at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) in June last year.
Leah was born partially blind to congenitally blind parents Abraham and Elena of Taguig City. Her 13-year-old brother, Daniel, is also partially blind.
A year after PhilHealth and a group of people pooled their resources to finance her surgery, Leah returned to PHC on June 17 for a check on her newly mended heart.
Far from the formerly thin, sickly baby, Leah is now a picture of a happy, talkative and playful girl who has become a source of inspiration and hope to others, especially among children who have congenital heart diseases.
Though she could see only a flicker of light, Leah loves to play with other heart patients who are recovering from their operation and even entertains the medical staff with her stories, songs and dances, said Dr. Juliet Balderas, head of PHC’s pediatric cardiology unit and board member of Children’s Heart Foundation (CHF).
Leah’s favorite songs are “Bahay Kubo,” “God Gave Me You” and “Tatlong Bibe.”
The parents of Leah are grateful to CHF and the donors who paved the way for their daughter to fulfill her dreams in the future. She dreams of becoming a schoolteacher someday.
“My daughter’s future is bright because she is healthy now,” Elena said.
Unknown to Leah, the pediatric dedicated operating room (Pedia OR) where she underwent a successful heart operation was funded by CHF, which is composed of businessmen, medical doctors and professionals who have been helping babies like her for 16 years now.
In December 1998, the Inquirer ran a story about 2-year-old Danica Jimeno of Baguio City who needed immediate surgery to plug a hole in her heart. Touched by the story, Filipinos here and abroad pledged to help.
A US-based Filipino heart surgeon, Dr. Serafin de Leon, volunteered to operate on Jimeno for free at Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans, where he was working.
Among those who called up the Inquirer to help finance the operation were Willy Arguelles, who himself had a heart ailment, Alvin Murriel, Chinese-Filipino businessmen Henry Lim, Wilson Aw, Mike Yao and Alexander Go Kian Lin, whose daughter was then battling a heart disease.
When Jimeno returned to Manila in 1999 after her successful surgery, she met and thanked her anonymous benefactors.
Murriel, Arguelles and Lim had never met before but were bound by a common cause—their desire to preserve the health of sick children of families who could not afford the medical expenses.
“Where do we go from here? What’s next?” Lim asked Arguelles and Murriel.
CHF was born in July 2000, with Murriel as the first president, while Arguelles, Aw, Yao, Go Kian Lin and Lim sat as officers.
For 16 years now, Jimeno has been the poster girl of CHF, gracing fundraising events and helping her benefactors to raise awareness of the need to finance the medical needs of sick children.
In 2012, Go Kian Lin, who became CHF president, took the lead in raising funds for the construction of Pedia OR.
How crucial is the Pedia OR that is exclusively for young patients?
For many years, PHC had only five such rooms for both adults and children. Only five operations were then allowed for children every week, Balderas said.
Since there were hundreds of babies waiting for immediate surgery, CHF raised funds to build a Pedia OR to accommodate them. Balderas said that since the Pedia OR was launched on Feb. 14, 2013, 864 children with various heart ailments have been living an active and normal life.
Go Kian Lin said that although the room was completed in 2013, they are still appealing for financial help to equip it with modern facilities to comply with international standards.
He admitted that soliciting funds from friends and strangers was not easy, but something in his family inspired him to continue with his advocacy.
“My second daughter is hearing impaired and my third daughter has a congenital heart problem so I know the pains that parents of sick children are going through,” Go Kian Lin said. “When I lost my wife in 2009 due to an illness, I realized how short life was. I wanted to use it to be a blessing to others,” he said during the inauguration of the CHF-funded grand auditorium at PHC on June 15.
The event was momentous as it served as a reunion of the Jimenos and their original benefactors and PHC doctors.
Now 20 and a nursing student at the University of the Cordilleras, Jimeno introduced herself to the men and women who gave her a second lease on life.
She told them that she had been living her dreams after kind strangers who had read her story in the Inquirer made it possible for her to have a successful surgery.
“I was your original heart baby. I can’t thank you enough,” she said. TVJ
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