18-year old Erica needs support for her lifetime medicines

Erica Narvas, 18 years old, is the daughter of our co-worker, Richard Narvas. Last February 2019, she was admitted to the hospital twice and is currently prescribed with medications which she has to take for life. The series of hospital admissions and the health status of Erica caused not only financial distress but also emotional difficulty to their family.

At such a young age with a future yet to unfold, Erica was already diagnosed with a valvular heart disease requiring her to take maintenance medicines daily for the rest of her life. It is important that she takes all of these to remove clots or extra fluids from her bloodstream, regulate her blood pressure, lessen symptoms of heart failure and avoid further complications. With the medicines, her quality of life as well may be expected to improve as she will have the opportunity to keep up with her life and continue fulfilling her roles as a Grade 10 student, as the eldest child of Richard and Leonita (her parents), and as the "ate" of Sofia and Maria (her two younger siblings).

Since her last discharge, Erica needs to take the following maintenance medicines:

1. Spironolactone 25mg/tablet - 1 tablet once a day
2. Enalapril 5mg/tablet - 1/2 tablet once a day
3. Clopidogrel 75mg/tablet - 1 tablet once a day
4. Diltiazem 30mg/tablet - 1 tablet once a day

These amount to about ₱80 per day, ₱2,400 per month or ₱28,800 in a year. Erica is also expected to go on regular follow-up check-ups with her doctor to monitor her condition.

In addition this, earlier this week, on March 12, 2019, Erica's father Richard was contacted by the hospital regarding one of the hospital bills of Erica. He was informed that they still owe the hospital ₱14,000 as the maximum coverage of the guarantor was ₱14,000 less than the total value noted in her hospital bill. Due to this, Erica and her family are now at a loss on where to source funds for this apparent debt.

Richard and Leonita, with an income barely enough to support the daily living of their family of five including the education of all his three children, have really been trying hard to make ends meet during these trying times, especially now that Richard is still recovering from a motorcycle accident which he experienced a week before the first hospitalization of Erica (that led to his own confinement and that also currently requires him to have follow-up consults and a follow-up CT scan). For instance, Richard started selling chicharon, butcheron and fish crackers to his co-workers to supplement their income.

Considering the hardships that Erica and her family have been going through recently, any support that their family will receive through this fundraising campaign to cover the hospital bill, costs of Erica's medications for at least a year and consultation fees would surely be a great relief to their family.

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Below is a short recount of Erica's hospital admissions last February 2019:

• 1st Hospital Admission

On February 9, 2019 she was admitted at Mercado General Hospital San Jose Del Monte, Inc. for an operation to excise breast masses as she was suffering from fibroadenoma. All these breast masses were successfully removed. She was then discharged after two days, February 11, 2019 with a hospital bill amounting to ₱76,665.12.

• On February 12, 2019 however, Erica started having productive cough and distressing so she just rested. On February 16, she reported that her cough persisted with occasional fever, easy fatigability and hoarseness of voice and two days after, on February 18, she started experiencing shortness of breath as well.
• When she had difficulty in breathing, the family decided to seek consult from the same hospital where she got the operation thinking that this was a complication of the operation.

• 2nd Hospital Admission

On February 19, she was admitted again at Mercado General Hospital San Jose Del Monte, Inc. After going through tests, she was diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia (moderate risk), valvular heart disease and electrolyte imbalance. She was discharged after a week on February 27 and was billed a total of ₱78,441.50 with a prescription for maintenance medicines.

While they received partial subsidy from PhilHealth and from an HMO to cover the hospital bills, Erica's family has already exhausted all their financial resources due to these hospitalizations and the hospitalization of Richard.

Any amount that we will be able to put together will surely help keep the smiles on the faces of the Narvas family. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you in advance!