Help 6-mos. Infant, Asher with crisis

Baby Asher Caleb C. Espiritu is currently 6 months old, Filipino male infant- born and residing in the Philippines, South East Asia.

He is known as cheerful and playful. He is very socialable and approachable- happy to be around the presence of other people. Though a few weeks ago we noticed that he was no longer in his normal energetic- cheerful state. At first, his whole family had thought that the illness was a mild one, though through several days under observation and care at home by his family members his vomiting did not stop but continuously, his condition kept declining. He was then taken to a public hospital to be seen but could not access urgent treatment that he needed due to the current pandemic- there weren’t enough publicly funded healthcare professionals available. Public hospitals were crowded and people wait longer to be treated with complications considering the safety and travel restrictions placed due to Covid-19. He was taken to a Private hospital and was diagnosed with amoeba after several tests. He was prescribed antibiotic treatment which he took for up to another week. Though despite all the medications he took, his condition did not improve at all, but kept declining further.

Ash had vomited bile consistently for several weeks, and recently lost a great amount of blood.

Two weeks later, while he was admitted at the Our Lady of St. Lourdes International Medical Centre in Olongapo City, Zambales. An ultrasound was done and the doctors discovered bowel obstruction formed between his digestive Intestines. Known by the medical term “Intussusception”. This left everyone in shock including the medical professionals who did not expect his condition to be more serious than how it was perceived from the recent tests and x-ray which showed no abnormalities.

—Intussusception is a condition in which one segment of the intestine "telescopes" inside of another, causing an intestinal obstruction (blockage).

Recently, Ash urgently needed surgery due to rapid blood loss and severe vomiting. Ash urgently surgery so the family rushed for him to get the operation. It was done on January 11, 2021, and thankfully, yield successful results. A cyst was discovered obstructing the intestines and this was successfully removed safely. Ash is currently recovering and ready to be discharged soon. Yet, when the medical bill was calculated upon discharge, it left both his parents and family members in distress, running out of financial options available. With 191,010.75 PHP in total to pay, which they could not immediately afford during the time due to the pandemic crisis.

Baby Ash’s parents could not afford the high costs and additional unexpected costs but had no choice as Ash was suffering in pain and becoming weaker; afraid we might lose Ash as he kept losing more blood and his pulse rate kept dropping. So far, we were able to gather enough to cover the costs for his blood transfusion from The Red Cross and helped Ash’s parents settle some of the bills for his medication.

Due to the current pandemic situation, their family income was affected, which made it more difficult for them to settle payments for these unexpected events despite several attempts of reaching out to neighbors, external family members, government offices, but without much luck.

We have reached out to The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for support, though they regretfully informed us that they could not shoulder the doctors’ fees and could only shoulder a partial amount for the room rate fees.

Due to the private hospital’s policy, They would not grant his discharge without settling doctors’ fees which is approximately 121,352 PHP.

Everyday the medical bill is increased due to the daily room rate, 1500 PHP per day. Ash’s family fears that if they do not settle his medical bill sooner, it will be more difficult for them to financially meet this, and Ash might not be able to come back home to his family for more months up.

We are reaching out to you now and kindly asking for donations to help baby Ash Caleb and his family. Any amount from the minimum is a blessing to Ash and his family and we highly appreciated any type of small form of help. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you can help Ash find other options where he can get financial support/donations.

We will keep trying our best to help baby ash and we pray that we reach our goal soon. Thank you in advance, god bless and we hope you are all safe during these challenging times.