The Faces of CHD in the Philippines

Paying it forward.

Last March 22, 2013, baby Gabrielle met with another heart warrior - 2 year old baby Jeanice (Save Jeanice's Heart). Like baby Bielle, Jeanice also has Tetralogy of Fallot which needs to be corrected as soon as possible via open heart surgery because she's been having "tet spells" (nails and lips, even whole body turns blue, pants, runs out of breath and sometimes faint). Being a heart mom, I know exactly how it feels when you see your daughter have tet spell attacks. Thus, I shared with baby Jeanice's mom some tips and useful information to win their battle against congenital heart defect.

According to Dr. Karl Reyes, baby Jeanice might also need to undergo a BT Shunt to lessen her tet spell attacks while she is waiting to have her open heart surgery to totally correct her congenital heart defect. Because of that, her family must prepare at least PhP800,000 up to 1 million (Philippine Peso) in order to finance the procedure. Her family has been having fund raising events and distributing solicitation envelopes just to come up with that amount however, as of now their funds are not even half way yet.

If you would think about it, P1,000,000 is such a big amount however, if only there would be 1,000 ANGELS willing to spare baby Jeanice at least P1,000 of their pay check, her open heart surgery will become a reality perhaps in less than three months. P1,000 wont hurt, I guess, knowing that your money will be of great help to a child in need.

To those who would like to share their blessings with baby Jeanice, you can contact her mother, Hanna, at +639217774069.

For money transfer please send it to:

Hanna Mae Tapang

Phase 1, Block 2 Lot 18 Dacudao Country Homes J. P. Laurel Panabo City 8105

The little girl wearing yellow is baby Jeanice with her Mommy Hanna,

and the angel in blue is our heart champ - Gabrielle with Mommy Pearl.

Mother and Child

My entry for @InstagramersCebu for this week's photo contest in +Instagram .. Feel free to leave comments. Thank you!

My CHD Advocacy

Being a mother of a heart warrior is not an easy task. It requires patience, perseverance, courage, strength, and a bundle of faith in God. Here in the Philippines, when a doctor delivers the news to the parents that their child has a Congenital Heart Defect, they can't help but feel like it's already the end of everything - that nothing else can be done except for cherish the remaining days of your kid while they are present.

Last February 18, 2013, my 1 year and 5 month old daughter, Gabrielle underwent a 6-hour life-saving open heart surgery to fix her congenital heart disease known as Tetralogy of Fallot where her heart has four abnormalities which had to be fixed for her to live a long and normal life.

When we first learned about her condition, I did not want her to undergo an operation because I cannot bear the sight of my daughter suffering from post-operative pains. However, I thought wrong because the longer Gabrielle's heart is "unfixed", the higher the risk of us losing her.

To make the long story short, I finally had the courage to decide and we then started a campaign to gather funds for my daughter's open heart surgery. Since we needed at least Php1,000,000, it did not happen overnight. It took us seven months of fund raising activities, sending of solicitation letters, and countless posts to various social media networks before we could accumulate enough resources. Luckily, we've got friends, families and even anonymous angels from across the globe who've sent their love and blessings for Gabrielle to have her much awaited open heart surgery. At this point of writing, our little angel is perfectly recovering from her surgery, appetite is very satisfactory and is taking her medications as prescribed by her surgeon to regulate her heart rate. She will then have her follow up check up with her heart surgeon and pedia-cardiologist in 6 months.

To all other heart parents out there, I would like to share this conversation between a barber and a little boy I've read somewhere before:

BARBER: Do you believe that there is God?

BOY: Yes, sir!

BARBER: If there is God, then why are there still a lot of people that are suffering, homeless, and sickly?

BOY: Do you believe that there are a lot of barbers in the world?

BARBER: Of course, there's a lot of us!

BOY: Then why are there still a lot of people with long hair?

BARBER: Well, they didn't ask us to cut their hair.

BOY: Much like the same with God sir. He knows all of us have problems but he just wanted to hear the sweetness of our prayers. ^_^

"There are a lot of people out there willing to help. All you just have to do is ASK."