Boy with big dreams fights to survive

VILLAHERMOSA

When Jack Villahermosa started going to grade school in 2008, he started dreaming big things for his mother, Lazarina, who lost her husband right after Jack, her youngest child, was born.

But three years later, Jack was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and meningitis with epilepsy, forcing him to drop out of school.

“He has not gone back to school since [2010] because he would suddenly fall while standing up; he would have seizures. I thought he had rabies that’s why I brought him to San Lazaro (Hospital),” the 54-year-old mother of nine children from Barangay Malaya, Pililla in Rizal province, said of her son, now aged 14.

“Being the youngest, I was counting on him. He was the kindest and the most handsome. He told me he would buy me a comfortable bed. ‘I’ll take care of you when you get old….’ Now, I don’t know. Only God knows if it will ever happen,” said the rice cake vendor.

Doctors at Philippine Children’s Medical Center want to place Jack on maintenance medication. They have prescribed 50 bottles of Valproic acid (antiseizure medicine) costing a total of P36,000. Jack is also unable to eat solid food so he is fed Ensure (a milk supplement) through a tube. He needs six cans which cost a total of P10,320.

Readers who want to help Jack can call Lazarina at 0919-3578616. Donations can be deposited in her Landbank account (Lazarina Villahermosa account #603131-50280623-13). Santiago R. Alcantara