Friday 17 February 2012

Advancis and Jhea-Mae's face burn

 It's been a while since my last blog. Computer problems!!  Deep joy!!


Anyway, through the incident with Tiffany (in my last blog), the hospital where she had been confined, opened its doors for Val to give lectures to doctors regarding the care and treatment of burns.  She was able to leave free dressing packs in the emergency room to ensure that no child burn victim would have to go untreated due to a lack of finances.  

As for Tiffany every 10 days I would have to take her to visit Val to have her dressing changed.  

Unfortunately, Val, who was very willing to treat Tiffany completely free of charge, ran out of dressings.  I traveled 2 1/2 hours to find the much needed dressings which I found as I stumbled across the tiniest of stores who gave a great discount when I told her of Tiffany's story.

In the meantime my niece who had recently returned to the UK, wrote to several pharmaceutical companies in the UK who made dressings, appealing for help.


Whenever Tiffany saw my car she would scream, because she knew that it was time to have her dressing changed.  It was hard to endure the screams as she had the wound bathed and cleaned with nothing more than oral paracetamol and anti-histamines to dull the pain and make her a little drowsy.  She screamed in pain the entire time, every time!!  On the way home, to end on a happier note, I would take her and her parents to Jollibee (which is the local children's favorite fast food chain similar to Mc Donald's), which of course she loved.

 

Whenever I arrived to collect her for her check-ups, she got in the car screaming but  between the screams and sobs she would say, "Jollibee tayo?" (are we going to Jollibee?)


TIFFANY AT JOLLIBEE
                                                              
Thankfully, aside from the much needed pressure garments, Tiffany is now doing fine.  As she is only two years old, she has a lot of growing to do.  Disfiguring is caused as the new skin is not as flexible and doesn't stretch with growth as the original skin does.  Pressure garments help prevent this disfigurement. Sadly these pressure garments are not available here in the Philippines and are very expensive.  So Tiffany is still waiting.


Just before Christmas I received a message from my niece Rachel.  She returned home one day to find boxes stacked up on her doorstep.  One of the pharmaceutical companies Advancis responded and donated boxes of the expensive dressings that Val needs to reach out and treat burns victims who would otherwise receive no treatment.

When my mother contacted the 'balikbayan' courier service she uses to send me dad's old gadgets, they insisted to send us the boxes free of charge!!


The day I went to deliver the packages to Val, there was a little girl who had just had an accident with some hot noodles.  Climbing up on a chair in their kitchen, Jhea-Mae slipped and pulled the hot noodles all over her chest and face.  The parents took her to the hospital but didn't have the means to pay for her medication, so she had been referred to Helping Hands  (Who knows what happened to the packs that Val left???  ...and Jhea-Mae's dressing also looks strikingly similar to Tiffany's!!!  It is quite frustrating for Val, but as always, we just plod on and do our best to help and to hopefully make a difference whenever we can!!)  







Helping Hands is a mission run by Claire (a good friend of mine).  They reach out to help indigent children in need of medical care, operations and care for children in their recovery unit.   Knowing of Val's expertise, Claire had in turn referred Jhea-Mae to Val.  


Val was wondering how she was going to care for Jhea-Mae without the much needed honey dressings.  What perfect timing!!  Mae was able to have the very best of care.


VAL DELIGHTED WITH HER GIFT FROM ADVANCIS

Val was so pleased too as she was about to treat a baby boy who had a coffee burn.  The parents had left the toddler in a room unattended with the coffee sitting on the side.  The toddler wasn't taken to the hospital because the family didn't even have the fare to get to the hospital much less afford the hospital care.  Imagine the pain that this little boy endured for four days with no medical care at all??? 
 


You can only imagine Val's elation that she had the supplies and was able to treat these children with the very best of dressings, without having skimp!!  





It was nice for us Brits (although Val is now an Australian citizen!!) to unite together to reach out and help these little ones that would have been without hope!!

 


Jhea-Mae is thankfully recovering well from her burn as is Tiffany and so many more children will reap the benefits of the dressings that came to the Philippines on account of Tiffany's tragic accident.  So something good came out of the trial!!!

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