Cash aid starts to pour for Talisay’s dengue victim

Social Welfare Office: P10K aid to be released next week; PB member willing to help

By next week, the P10,000 needed by family of the 10-year-old child from Barangay Lawaan, Talisay City, who was admitted for dengue six months after he took his first shot of the controversial anti-dengue vaccine, Dengravia, would have been covered already by Talisay City’s Social Welfare Development Office.

Felipa Solana, head of the Talisay City Social Welfare and Development Office, told CDN in a phone interview on Saturday that they have recommended a P10,000 financial assistance for the family of Jujen Ababon, whose hospital bills ballooned to P30,000 five days after being confined at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the South General Hospital in Naga City, southern Cebu.

“It now only needs the approval of Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas Sr. (This also means that) there’s the possibility that he may increase it.

Nevertheless, before next week ends, the money will be sent to the hospital, and their bill will be immediately reduced,” said Solana.

The family had earlier raised P20,000, which was money borrowed by Junrey Ababon, a mechanic and the father of Jujen, from his employer.

Jujen was rushed to the hospital after five days of fluctuating fever and severe nosebleed on Wednesday dawn, where he was placed at the ICU.

He was however moved from the ICU to the hospital’s ward since Friday afternoon.

But his relatives told Cebu Daily News that attending physicians are still closely monitoring his condition since his platelets are increasing at a “very slow rate.”

Ompoy Ababon, the grandfather of Jujen, said the 10-year-old was not yet advised to be discharged from a private hospital in Naga City four days since he was admitted for dengue.

Ompoy said he visited his grandson in the ward at the South General Hospital on Friday evening, and he was really concerned upon seeing his grandson’s “pitiful condition.”

“My grandson was really pale. I cannot help but feel worried even though he’s already out of the ICU,” he said.

Ompoy, 45, lives only two blocks away from the house of Jujen’s parents, Jinny and Junrey. He is now taking care the three other children of the couple since they rarely stay in their house at Sitio Kaduldulan, Barangay Lawaan III in Talisay City since Jujen was hospitalized.

“Junrey (a mechanic) now works overtime in the shop just to earn more money to pay for the (hospital) bills while Jinny (a rag maker) is at the hospital taking care of their son,” said Ompoy.

In an earlier interview, Junrey told CDN that he and his wife roughly earns P50,000 as their income every year. Since they only had P1,000 as spare money when Jujen was admitted at South General Hospital, the Ababon couple borrowed P20,000 from Junrey’s employer as downpayment, which was still short of P10,000 from the P30,000 hospital bill.

This promoted the couple to seek help from the Talisay City government and concerned government agencies.

An appeal answered by Talisay City’s DSWO; Barangay Lawaan III officials, who shelled out P1,000 to the couple; and Talisay City Councilor Richard Francis Aznar, chairperson of the Committee on Health who also gave the couple P1,000.

Provincial Board Member (1st District) Yolanda Daan told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview that she would be willing to provide financial assistance to the family of Jujen.

“If they will come to my office personally (at the Capitol compound), much better. I will welcome and accept their request. I wanted to meet them personally so that I can have a closer look at their situation, right now,” said Daan.

Dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical disease that already claimed at least 14 lives in Cebu for 2017 according to recent data from the Provincial Health Office (PHO), attacks and depletes its host’s platelet, a vital component in blood needed for it to circulate normally.

At least five children aged 9 to 12 in Sitio Kaduldulan also were inoculated with Dengvaxia as beneficiaries of the government’s dengue immunization program. Data from DOH-7 revealed that over 150,000 children in Cebu were inoculated with Dengvaxia.

Based on PHO records, Talisay had the most number of dengue cases in the entire province, which recorded 453 patients from January to November this year.