CLUBFOOT

Tenderfoot and clubfoot are two words with entirely different meanings- the former represents the lowest grade of boy scouts whithersoever dispersed; the latter will be the subject of this unique but otherwise heartwarming article.

J A, a two-letter acronym, is the nickname of a three-year old boy named Jose Albert Molina who on December 21 will turn four. But when Bro. Felix Vicuna, Jr., the expert orthopedic surgeon who is single-handedly administering the charitable projects of the Shrine Foundation for Crippled Children in Cebu City asked him how old he is, the boy smilingly flashed out the middle and fore fingers of his right hand in reply to the consternation of his 33-year old mother and with her own hands helped him add his ring finger to indicate his age is already three. But the good doctor was instead keenly touching his thumb, almost massaging it, saying: “this finger needs fixing by grafting a tendon on the upper part of his hand and transferring it on the thumb so that it can move. The same holds true for the thumb of his left hand, at the same time gently moving it to show it also does not work “. Why Dr. Vicuna no longer paid attention to the young boy’s index finger, the aging lion could not tell, but it could be because that smallest part of the hand is good only for taking out the solid object that may have already hardened inside the nose (in local parlance, kulangot) and nothing else!! But let that yucky possibility not distract the aging lion from his chore of narrating this poignant but otherwise controversial article right from the very start..

It was barely three weeks ago when the baranggay captain of Guinacut, a seaside village of Guindulman town who, upon learning that the lion tamer is active on her harelip assistance project, asked if she can also help a young boy who was born with a congenital physical defect. She said she will try and asked that the boy be personally brought to us so that we can see if he can be helped..

We did see the boy and noted that his movements as a human being was disheartening. Instructed to move around the house, he would hold on to a sturdy object like chairs, sofas or bamboo railings, and like a chimpanzee would use his hands to move his frail body around, using the blades of his feet as he cannot set his foot firmly on the floor the way normal persons do. Left alone in sitting position, he would wave his two arms high above his head from left to right in alternating motion as if waving to the tune of a charismatic song and thus would be able to inch his way to the place inside the house where he wants to go. Which could also remind the reader of a battery-operated mechanical toy but without the rollers to make it move. Understandably, his trousers would collect the dirt on the floor as he performs that peculiar motion but he doesn’t mind. What mattered he was able to go to the place he wanted and that’s it.

The lion tamer was, however, adamant whether we should take them to Cebu City. Taking both the mother and the boy there for operation will understandably drain our meager resources and will surely adversely affect our scheduled visit to our folks in the big city for the Christmas holidays. But at the back of our minds we felt there is no way we can ignore this special errand of the GAOTU.. The only logical option then was to call Dr. Vicuna long distance for assurance that help, in addition to footing the hospital bills, is forthcoming especially because a modest allowance for the incidental expenses of both the mother and the young boy are to be expected. Fortunately, the good doctor assured us that that help will come similar to a relay- we take the boy and his mother to Cebu and he picks up the problem from there. With the aid of a mental speed calculator therefore, the aging lion estimated it would cost them from two to three thousand bucks to take them to Cebu before Dr. Vicuna takes over.

So the plan to have the boy operated on was formulated. The mother went to Limasawa in Leyte with her one year old daughter in her arms so that the relatives of her husband may care for the girl meantime she will be caring for her son at Vicente Sotto Hospital in Cebu City. Sadly however, she returned home with her youngest child still in her arms because the relatives of her husband in Leyte would not want to share with their burden as they most probably also have their own unbearable loads to bear.

The lion tamer for her part approached the DSWD office in Guindulman and asked for financial assistance. The office gladly did and appropriated P500, the maximum amount the DSWD office can defray to indigents. She next called the town mayor who also volunteered another P500 and so a check for P1,000 was finally withdrawn from the town’s only savings bank.

On the Sunday evening of November 26, the foursome composed of the lion tamer, her aging pet and the mother with the boy clinging at her back boarded the J & N Ferry at Ubay and on the early morning of the next day arrived at the famed Queen City of the South. After a side trip to the residence of her aunt for a hurried breakfast and a refreshing bath, they proceeded to the Cebu Doctors Hospital for their appointment with Dr. Felix Vicuna and there his expert diagnoses that was mentioned earlier was performed until finally by eleven in the morning, he scribbled his instructions to the staff of Vicente Sotto Hospital that the young boy be admitted and the preliminary tests, among them, x-rays, taking his blood pressure and other tests required by the operation be carried out

Those who have experienced accompanying patients to this government hospital will attest that being admitted as a patient can already be an ordeal, not because the staff are inefficient for surely they are not, but simply because the number of patients that need medical attention far exceed what the hospital can possibly handle. It is not unusual for patients who were admitted at the emergency room to stay there for a couple of days and wait for a patient to be released before he or she is formally admitted to a ward as replacement to the patient who was released. Fortunately for us the admitting nurse was a Boholana from Sevilla town who attended to our needs with dispatch and also because our patient is under the care of Dr. Vicuna of the Shrine Foundation which automatically entitled him to a bed in the hospital. Nonetheless, he had to be taken to the Orthopedic ward not on a stretcher as normally should have been done but on his mother’s back so as not to invite quizzical stares that he was admitted way ahead of the others. The ward, after all is a forty-bed room that already accommodates no less than sixty patients. The boy and mother were finally admitted to the ward at five in the afternoon and thus enabled us to return to the residence of the lion tamer’s aunt to rest and map out plans to return home the next day after giving the mother the P1,000 pocket money that the lion tamer smooched from the DSWD. On the side, the aging lion advised the mother to scrimp on her expenses hopefully to make it last at least two weeks and let the lion tamer worry where the additional pocket money will come from next. Silently, the aging lion also mused that perhaps Bro. Tony will not mind if part of the P5,000 that he generously sent will be channeled to this charitable activity that just appeared at our very doorsteps.

The mother, for her part, obviously had worries of her own. Probably expecting that the admission process will be done in a jiffy, or because she was also worried at her youngest child in Bohol, or it may be because the crowded condition at the hospital made her ill at ease as she is herself a polio victim with a frail body and thus felt she may not be able to endure the rigors of patiently nursing her son while at the hospital, she sent a text message when we were already on board a ferry to return home the next day that she be replaced by her husband to attend to the needs of their son at the hospital, a text that irked the lion tamer because of her lackadaisical attitude at having the defect of her son attended to. It’s good that she reconsidered at the last minute because word has it that her husband skipped his trip Cebu City otherwise it would surely have meant additional financial worries for them which would be quite difficult to solve.

Barring adverse medical tests therefore, the boy will be subjected to the knife today, Friday, the first day of December. Once performed, the next worry to mull about will involve the length of time it will take to enable him to finally stand on his own two feet unaided by sturdy objects like chairs, sofas and most probably crutches if his disheartening defect is not at all corrected?!

And the aging lion yawns!


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