Mother of Two Patients Cries Out for Help
April 11, 2015
Marissa Pasyalen is a 38-year old former overseas worker with six children, one of whom is bed-ridden and racking up bills in a hospital for pneumonia while another is at home, confined to a wheelchair for bladder, kidney and heart problems.
Marissa, who worked as a domestic help for three years in Malaysia who had to come home to take care of them, admitted she doesn’t know who and where to turn to for help. A public appeal coursed through the Baguio media might help, she said last week.
Her daughter, Desiree, 14, has been confined at the Baguio General Hospital since last Feb. 14, the left side of her body paralyzed due to pneumonia and complications. Her family had used up P30,000 for medicines and her hospital bills had shot up to P134,000.
“Doctors said she would need an oxygen tank to help her breathe and be able to recuperate at home when she would be released from the hospital,” Marissa said.
The gadget would cost about P11,000. It’s a pittance compared to the hospital charges and to the cost of an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) procedure, estimated at P25,000, her other child, Ralph Benedict, 19, needs to undergo.
Ralph, third in a brood of six, underwent surgery for multiple angiolipoma when he was 10 months old, again when he was two years old.
In 2011, the kid became bed-ridden. Last September, he was rushed to the BGHMC for abdominal pain. That’s when doctors diagnosed him for bladder stones, kidney and heart problems.
The others in the brood are Aldrin, 23, who works asa construction laborer after finishing high school Jemar, 21,. also a laborer; Mark, 17, out-of-school; and Anjay, 11 and in the fourth grade.
The children depends on the laborer’s income of their father, Jerry, a 42-year old construction worker from La Trinidad, Benguet. He and Marissa met when both were working at the Philex Mines in Padcal, Tuba, Benguet.
Samaritans can contact Marissa’s cellphone number – 09485378418. They may visit the family at JD-147 Bayabas, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet./Ramon Dacawi
