Tsao-ang's Heart

Maria Elina Salvacion Kristina V. Ramo has a problem with her heart and she needs help. She is turning 19 on December 25 and the best Christmas gift for her from any Good Samaritans can be any form of support to remedy her heart problem.

Tsao-ang, as she is fondly called, was born with a hole between her left and right atria or the wall dividing her upper heart chambers. In short, she has a hole in her heart. Doctors call it Atrial Septal Disease, an abnormal condition that makes the blood flow back into the right atrium instead of going back into the other chambers. The condition, according to cardiologists, has to be corrected through an open heart surgery to close the hole.

When Tsao-ang was two years old, her parents had hoped and were made to believe that she could outgrow the condition. But she is now in college and the hole in her heart is still there. In 2004 a cardiologist in Baguio City checked Tsao-ang’s condition with a modern gadget called 2D-echo machine and recommended that she should be operated on immediately.

In May this year, yet another cardiologist at the Philippine Children’s Hospital in Quezon City confirmed the previous findings and advised Tsao-ang’s parents to move fast before anything tragic happens to their eldest child. Despite her condition, Tsao-ang has been making good in her Physics course at the University of the Philippines-College of Baguio. Tsao-ang’s teachers since pre-school say she is a specially gifted child, who excels in all her subjects, particularly math and the sciences.

Tsao-ang’s parents, Ador and Lyn, are doing all they can to save their child. But the cost of the operation is no joke, especially for both parents who simply cannot afford the more or less half-million-peso cost of operation and medicines. Ador works as a researcher in a non-government organization while Lyn writes for a local weekly newspaper in Baguio City. “Although we have only two children, our meager income barely allows for savings,” the couple said in a letter of appeal to would-be Good Samaritans who can offer any form of support to them.

Finally last October 17, Ador and Lyn finally had Tsao-ang checked up at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City after queuing for almost 10 hours. Although the new check-up reveals that she is doing well despite the hole in her heart, Tsao-ang, cardiologists at the heart center recommend, still needs surgical operation to finally close the hole.

Tsao-ang is scheduled for another final check-up through the 2D-Echo gadget on November 20 and by then the Ramo’s would know when Tsao-ang finally will be under the knife. While waiting for the schedule of operation, Ador, Lyn and their daughter are taking the opportunity for the time left to pool resources and support from relatives, friends and from any one with a big heart for Tsao-ang. And they have to prepare themselves psychologically and spiritually for the operation.

Despite her condition, Tsao-ang, as advised by her parents, could enroll during the coming semester while waiting and preparing for the operation, which, the Ramo’s are forewarned, may take a longer wait.

Tsao-ang has dreams. She hopes to finish her Physics course next year and seeks to pursue a career in architecture later. Any form of help from you can help make Tsao-ang’s dream come true. And that dream may yet help build this nation. We need all the talents and God-given gifts of every Filipino harnessed for this country of our hopes and aspirations.