Please help a Hero

A daughter’s plea for her papa’s life

This is the story of Enriquito Achumbre, a selfless father, a community leader, taxi driver, seven eleven branches coordinator, brother, good friend, an unknown hero. I am writing this for my father because I love him beyond any words can express and he has given his life not just to us his kids but to our community. Please allow me to introduce you to my papa by enumerating some of the heroic things he has done.

•For several years now, he is the President and Master Founder of Guardians Brotherhood, Liloan, Cebu. The organization prioritizes peace and order, environmental protection, and cause-oriented activities. With his leadership, the organization forged a partnership with Liloan PNP to help keep the community safe.
•4 years ago, he helped revive a kid to life who drowned in Suba, Liloan, Cebu, he rushed the kid to Eversley Hospital by his own motorbike.
•Approximately 6 years ago, he didn’t return to our house for almost 24 hours just to help reconnect a kid to his parents.
•In 2018, he was part of the team who helped recover a kid from a hostage situation in Cotcot, Liloan, Cebu.
•He is the recently appointed Vice President of Greenhills, Poblacion and initiated “May Bugas sa Plastik” as part of the environmental conservation project for the purok aiming to help feed families.

It is important to note that he did all these in his private time, as a volunteer, without compensation. (Not to mention the fact that he does not get paid as a Guardians President. Not even an allowance. But his love to serve is always on).

What happened to papa?

On Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 4pm when papa arrived home from the gym, he complained about not feeling well and asked his partner to bring him to the community health center. I got a call from my step-mom (I am based in Tacloban city now) where she explained to me what was happening. Immediately, I told them to get him to the nearest hospital ER because I realized he was having a stroke. His speech was slurred and face deformed and he had a bad headache. He was tended to by the center and was transported to Chong Hua Hospital. I told them to go there specifically because I got my father a health insurance under PhilAm Life. Chong Hua hospital tended to papa really well. Kudos to the hospital for its top notch medical services. Papa was placed in NCCU so he can be well monitored. Tests were ran – CT scan, bloodwork, X-Ray, etc. at this point papa is conscious but with slurred speech and numb whole left part of his body.

August 22, 2019: From the CT scan results we found out that his brain was swollen and bleeding. On the same day, the insurance representative also informed us that his medical bills will not be covered because it is a pre-existing condition. Papa is diabetic and has hypertension. He is on maintenance medication. We panicked! Where in the world would we get the money for all his medical bills especially that he is in a private hospital. What’s worse is the hospital advised us that he might undergo brain surgery if they are not able to stop the bleeding and it will cost us at minimum, Php400,000. We are not rich, we don’t have much but our love and faith is more powerful than stroke. There was only one solution – move him to the government hospital. We decided to move him to Vicente Sotto hospital which is just a corner away from Chong Hua. By the time we were able to raise enough money to make partial payment for the bill at Chong Hua (From family and friends donations and personal loans. You all know who you are, I will find time to personally thank you guys more when this is all over but from the bottom of my hypothalamus, thank you so so much!), papa already racked a bill of Php154,000. We managed to pay about half of it and with enough pleading and some wonderful staff’s help, we got approved for a promissory note for the half with my sister’s passport as a collateral. This very same day, I have reached out to everyone I know for help including Congressman Duke Frasco Municipality Liloan-Cebu and Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco who are heaven’s sent and committed to assist us with Php100,000 from their funds and personally asked their respective staff to assist us access the funds. Thank you so much, ma’am and sir for being so responsive despite going through a non-formal route of communication - Instagram. Sorry, I was so desperate. Note: Process to access the funds will be started tomorrow, Monday, and hopefully we can get the funds then.

August 23: Around 3am, we were finally moved to Vicente Sotto hospital and it is important to note that despite the medical staff being nice and all, this hospital is saturated and understaffed. There’s just too many patients! We had to wait for hours and hours just to get a room. Anyway, we decided to put him in a private room because of his volatile condition. More tests were done as soon as we got settled and it was found out that the bleeding even got worse. He had to go on surgery, ASAP! In addition, his kidneys were failing and his lungs are full of phlegm.

August 24: Early morning, papa finally went into surgery. We were very emotional because the doctor told us they will do their best but we should prepare for the worst. Long night for everyone! Nobody got a blink. 7am, we were informed that papa has now been moved to the recovery room. A few hours after, he was moved to the ICU.

August 25: Today, we have almost depleted what money we managed to raise since his medications have cost us an average of Php35,000 to Php45,000 a day. We do not know how long he will be at the ICU and when we can access any government assistance but we need cash on a daily basis to buy his medications that are not available in the hospital’s pharmacy.

Kakapalan ko na talaga mukha ko to ask for your help. Anyone who knows me and my relationship with my papa will know how much I love and look up to him and that I will do whatever I can to help save or prolong his life for the sake of my younger brothers and sisters. Any help will do and will go a long long way. You will forever have my gratitude and I promise to repay you when I can and in any way in my little capacity.

My bank details:
Bank of the Philippine Islands
Account name: July Anne Achumbre
Account number: 1749288651

Please pm me ([email protected]) if you want to send through other means (any amount or assistance will do) and if you send some money via BPI so we know and so we can formally thank you.

Please feel free to share. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Lots of love,

July