Malou's 16 Kilogram problem

I first met Malou Casapaw at the emergency room of Roxas Memorial Medical Center in Roxas City. She looked 40, and very pregnant. Or so I thought. Accompanied by her husband Sonny, Malou could barely carry the load of her 3-year old ovarian cyst. I found out she was only 28 years old, when she filled out the patient information form. Malou looked frail, tired and desperate. She needed an operation to remove her cyst, but could not afford one.

Life has not been easy for the Casapaw couple. Sonny he had to stop working, to attend to his wife's needs. Malou depended on him for the smallest things, such as moving around the house, taking her meals, changing clothes, shifting positions in bed, or going to the toilet. Without income, the young couple depended on dole outs from family and neighbors in Kalibo, Aklan. They borrowed money to travel to Roxas City, where they enlisted in a surgical mission for indigents.

Malou was not disappointed. Volunteer doctors from the Philippine Society of Anesthesiologists and Philippine College of Surgeons accepted Malou as a beneficiary of "LIBRENG OPERASYON SA CAPIZ" held on March 18-20, 2009. She was one of 70 indigent patients who availed of free surgery, which costs more than 4 million pesos when performed on paying patients in private hospitals.

Doctors successfully removed Malou's ovarian cyst which weighed 16 kilograms, or the weight of about 4 babies. The cyst is benign.

"LIBRENG OPERASYON SA CAPIZ" is just one of 3 surgical missions scheduled for 2009 by the Philippine Society of Anesthesiologists and ABS CBN Regional Network Group. A surgical mission will be held in Sorsogon province in June, while there's another mission in Surigao del Sur in October.

The mission enjoins groups or individuals, to serve indigent patients in the countryside, who are often deprived of basic medical services. Patients like Malou who endured her 16 Kilogram problem due to the prohibitive cost of surgical procedures even in public hospitals.

ABS CBN Regional Network Group takes care of logistics by forging partnerships with other institutions including the local government of Capiz and the Department of Health, for the mission's other needs. Volunteer anesthesiologists and surgeons from the country's leading hospitals shared their time, medicines, supplies, and expertise. It is their way of giving back to the community, some of the blessings they have enjoyed in their years of fruitful practice.

As for the Casapaw couple, the free surgery gave them hope. When Malou was wheeled out of the operating room following an hour-long procedure, Sonny was teary eyed. They cannot wait to start building their life-long dream, of making a family.

And yes, the doctor said she can still bear fruit.