Miracles do happen.
For the past five years, 47-year old Jesus Aquino, a resident of Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas, has been praying that he would someday be healed of a large lump around his neck due to an abnormality in his thyroid gland. And his prayers were answered.
Last June 13, a team of medical doctors from St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), led by Boston-trained surgeon Dr. Karl Michel Reyes, successfully removed Aquino’s lump. Not a single centavo was spent by the Aquino family for the operation.
Dr. Reyes even waived his professional fee just to help Aquino and his family of seven children. The family originally had nine children, but two of them have died.
Mayor Herbert Bautista personally offered the city’s help to Aquino during their chance meeting last May 31, 2011 when the Mayor was conducting an inspection of the city’s newly-constructed kindergarten classrooms at the Lupang Pangako Elementary School.
The Mayor immediately ordered city administrator Victor Endriga to ensure that Aquino will get all the needed medical attention.
To date, the QC government and the SLMC have expanded their joint program of medical assistance for the city’s poor.
As provided in a memorandum of agreement, the city government shall allocate P10 million annually, for a five-year period beginning August 1, 2010 and until July 31, 2015, for the purpose of providing quality health care to the city’s underprivileged constituents by utilizing SLMC’s medical services and facilities.
Of the amount, P6 million shall be allocated to cardholders of the QC “Habang May Buhay” medical program and the remaining P4 million to be utilized as discretionary fund of Mayor Bautista.
Cardholders of QC’s “Habang May Buhay” program referred to and admitted to SLMC shall be treated as part of the medical training program of the hospital. -30- Precy/ Ej/ Maureen Quinones, PAISO
