The Story (of Part) of My Life

I am Carlo de Castro.

I have a story to tell.

"You have 5 years to live", the doctor told me.

That was in 1998, 14 years ago.

The doctor gave me that verdict after I underwent health tests at Cardinal Santos Hospital close to Xavier School where I was teaching.

The doctor told me that I could add 20 more years to my life if I would undergo a hearth by-pass surgery.

When he added that it would cost around P 500,000, my heart sank. I did not have that much money. My meager savings amounted to less than a hundred thousand pesos.

I just hoped my condition would improve by taking medicine.

Two years later, I suffered a very severe chest pain and I asked to be taken to a hospital. I had been having minor chest pains whenever I walked a few meters fast and whenever I got scared or nervous.

After an angiogram operation showed severe blockage in three cardiac arteries and a minor one in a fourth artery, the doctor said he would arrange for a schedule for the heart by-pass surgery at the Philippine Heart Center within a week. I asked for more time to raise money for the expenses.

With one month left in the school year, I decided to file for retirement at Xavier School so I could use the retirement benefits to pay for the operation.

For my retirement benefits, I received only P 414,000 from the school. That was way too short to foot the hospital and surgical operation expenses and so we had to borrow from friends and relatives. I did not have contact with the Xavier and Ateneo alumni or parents to ask for help.

The Philippine Heart Center, a government institution which is supposed to be helping the poor, did not allow me to have a medicare discount! This, despite my 62 year-old age,.was denied me, a poor school teacher.

This medical expense brought my economic standing to zero. It was back to square one but I could not continue teaching due to severe hearing difficulty, aside from being overqualified. I only had to rely on the measly 8-thousand/mo. pension which is barely enough for my maintenance meds.

I got to co-author a second book, an edited version of a high-school physics textbook, for which I received a little royalty for two years. There has not been another contract afterwards till today.

(to be continued)

(from my blogspot)