AJMAN A Filipina couple is making a desperate plea for help to raise Dh50,000 that will fund an urgent lifesaving surgery for their daughter, born a month premature on October 19 at GMC Hospital in Ajman.
Baby Samira Alegra who weighed only 1.6 kilos at birth, has Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) or an unclosed hole in her aorta, the main artery, according to her mother and needs surgery at the earliest. “She was born with a congenital heart disease and is currently being kept at a Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Doctors at GMC Hospital in Ajman say she has a hole in her heart and needs an operation as soon as she’s fit for it,” says mum Analiza Pelayo Sales, 39, from Pampanga, Luzon, of her second child originally due on November 19.
“As of November 15 the hospital bills have already amounted to Dh47,000 and the expenses keep stacking. We have been asked to pay up even as she continues to receive care at the hospital,” adds the woman who earns Dh4,000 as a supervisor at a photo studio. After her husband, Anthony Jasper, 37, lost his Dh5,000 job at a pre-school in February, Analiza says she was the family’s only breadwinner for months. “I was the only one working regularly these past few months till Anthony got a job three weeks back. It has been months of struggle for my family all this while and it’s just got far worse,” says Analiza who also has had to pay for his eight-year old son, Raul’s school, besides rent and other costs, all this while.
“We are running out of options and we need your compassion and kindness to get us through these difficult times. We love our daughter so much and we are desperate to save our daughter’s life,” says Anthony, the father who now works on Dh5,000 salary as a salesman in a music store.
If you wish to help baby Samera write to editor@xpress4me.com
