Tita Milot’s Dialysis

Hello everyone! You may have heard that Tito Milot Ranola suffered a heart attack 3 weeks ago. She was rushed to the ICU and treated. Afterwards, she contracted pneumonia and had to be sent to the ICU again as well as undergo dialysis due to the weakened state of her kidneys. As you may or may not know, Tita Milot has diabetes and heart issues. She lives in Valenzuela with Ate Marj, and she has one other daughter, our cousin Ate Chi Chi.

For the Sto. Domingos who live in the US, you may or may not be familiar with the current state of the health care system in the Philippines. Most Filipinos do not have health insurance, and even those who do only have standard health insurance, which covers up to about 4,500-5,000 US dollars a year. Hospital stays in the ICU typically cost 2,000 US dollars a day, double if you are in a top medical facility. Furthermore, dialysis in the Philippines is subsidized up to about 90 sessions a year for senior citizens, but for every day in the ICU, one session is subtracted. The sessions are subsidized, but they are not free.

We are hopeful that Tita Milot will be able to regain normal kidney function after she has recovered, but in the meantime her doctors recommend 3 sessions a week of dialysis. The cost for her treatment is approximately 3,000 pesos per session (including the injection which is the expensive part according to Ate Marj), so she needs about 9,000 pesos per week just for dialysis alone.

Ate Marj and Ate Chi are two of our cousins who live here in the Philippines, where you'd be lucky to take home 2,000 USD a month for your household. Dialysis bills and diabetes medication amounting to 800 dollars a month is a heavy burden for the average household.

I came across this information when I gave Ate Marj a call because I urged her to approach both PhilHealth and the PCSO which give cash subsidies to Filipinos who are in need of expensive treatments (usually dialysis, chemotherapy, and heart failure.) Unfortunately, they could only give out 20,000 pesos (less than 400 USD) because they were under budget and had to distribute 4 Million pesos or 77,000 USD to 200 individuals who line up each day from 3 to 4 am.

As of my last count, there are about 45 or so Sto. Domingo cousins. If we each gift about 70 USD or 3,500 pesos each, we could be sponsoring 1 dialysis session and supporting Tita Milot's family for 4 months. It would be a huge relief to them while they recover from paying the hospital bills, and also because they were expecting to claim this amount as help from PCSO.

Many of us are supporting our own families or saving up to pay off debt, but a donation of 35 dollars a month for 2 months would go along way to help our cousin.
Other ways to help would be to send prayers and support to Tita Milot and her family.

I started this GoFund me as a way for the Sto. Domingo cousins to get together to help our cousins, Ate Marj and Ate Chi Chi. They do not know about this, and I'm thinking of surprising them when we visit next week.


*****Please note: If you live in the Philippines, it is better to send me a PM and I'll give you my bank details. Better yet, you could contact me and we could visit Tita Milot together in person and you can hand over our gift personally. If you live in the US, this platform will allow you to gift Tita Milot via PayPal. I will give it through check to Tita Milot with our names listed.

This is a private page, so please share to our Sto. Domingo family through personal messages only to respect the privacy of Tita Milot. Thanks!! :) *****