For the love of our dear Mamang❤

Hi everyone, my name is Gloria Gatuslao Malabag from Manila, Philippines. I’m a single parent to four boys. This year, we’ve had a very challenging situation for the past 5 months. On May 16th, Luisa, our mother had a severe stroke. We immediately rushed her to the hospital and had her CT scan and x-ray. Results showed that the right hemisphere of her brain was damaged, causing the left part of her body to be paralyzed. My family was informed that she too has atrial fibrillation- an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm. She was confined in a hospital for almost a week. We were clueless as to what would be the next thing to expect days later while still in hospital confinement because her cardiologist bluntly told us to expect the worst, while her neurologist was somehow giving us a slight hope of recovery. We placed our hope somehow on what the neuro told us. We saw a slight and slow recovery on the 4th day and thank God, our mom was discharged on the 6th day. We brought her to my house, and i shared my room with her , so we could monitor her 24/7. Everything went well.

Then on September 24, she had another stroke, this time she had seizures that lasted for almost 10 minutes. Her Glasgow score was 7 which means she was in coma. The left hemisphere of her brain was completely damaged. The clot in her brain is much bigger. Worst of all, our mom became comatose for almost 3 days at the same time she developed pneumonia. We were thinking that as we look at our mom’s condition, we begin to lose hope because the complications have increased. In her one week of confinement at the hospital, bed sores suddenly formed on both sides of her buttocks. Overwhelmed by the rapid physical decline of our mom the funds draining, we’re more than overwhelmed. We are 4 siblings in the family and each one of us did our part in sharing our resources , time and care for her but what we need now is more than enough funds to sustain her needs as her condition worsens now. On my part , I still have 2 kids in college out of 4 boys..Our main concern now is to address her bed sores as they begin to increase in different parts of her lower body.

This is now our new battle, and we are to address this daily for the sake of our mom- to arrest the sores. One of the ways to address this is to provide a special hospital bed that has special features to clean up the sores. It is a convertible type of bed to sustain parts of her body in order not to undergo deterioration. As a bedridden patient, there’s a need to change her NGT (for feeding) regularly. Costly medicines for her brain and heart are to be administered at a very precise time. Online consultations with her doctors come at a hefty price.

This may be our quandary for now, but at the same time a challenge for us siblings to serve our mom for such a time as this. And we believe that children ought to honor their parents even at the lowest point in their lives. And we believe now is the time to do that. As of Nov 2,2023, we needed to bring her again to the hospital because of her worsening bed sores. Her doctor suggested debridement of her bed sores and since her hemoglobin is very low she needed to have blood transfusion prior to debridement and we were informed that this procedure might cause her cardiac arrest considering her age, 84 years old. But we still believe in God's sovereignty, He knows what's best for our dear mother. Once her hemoglobin improves, debridement shall be performed on Nov5.

Having said this, I humbly appeal, based on the generosity of your hearts for your help financially. I may not be able to know you personally, but there’s coming a day if not in this life but in the life to come to thank you with all sincerity. Most of all, I thank God for using you to alleviate our burdens. Eternity will reveal those of you who joined us for this humanitarian reason.

Thank you very much in advance. God bless your hearts!

Sincerely,

Gigi