Dubai: A Filipina who suffered brain damage following a heart attack in June was finally flown home in a stretcher early on Sunday, but left behind a huge hospital bill that her family has no means to pay.
Techie Santos, 35, had a heart attack on June 21 and was rushed to International Modern Hospital. She was not breathing when paramedics reached her flat.
Santos was revived after almost an hour of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by paramedics and doctors.
Due to oxygen deprivation, however, she sustained brain damage. She also had trauma to her lungs, which is a result of prolonged CPR.
Santos, a mother of two children aged 12 and 7, is the sole breadwinner of her family in the Philippines. She came to Dubai in 2014 to work as a sales promoter.
“She’s the most generous person I know,” Crismanne Santos, 34, Techie’s only sibling, told Gulf News. “If there’s a need back home, she would do everything just so she could provide for her family.”
Santos won’t be able to do that for now. Currently conscious, she can hear and blink, but cannot move her body.
Dr Kishan Pakkal, CEO of International Modern Hospital, is positive that with family support, love, and care and holistic rehabilitation in the Philippines, Santos will be able to recover, albeit slowly.
Dr Pakkal said the hospital did its best “as part of our corporate social responsibility to make sure that the repatriation was done smoothly and in line with the Year of Giving, we will also consider heavy discounting on the pending bills”.
On Sunday, Santos was accompanied to the airport by her friends and colleagues.
“I am happy she is now going home to be with her kids,” Crismanne, who works as a receptionist, said. “But I am at my wits’ end as to how I will settle the hospital bill as my salary is not enough. I am now the sole breadwinner for my parents, my sister’s kids and my kids.”
Santos’ racked up Dh30,000 in hospital bills after she maxed out her insurance cover being hospitalised for more than a month.
Santos’ company could not immediately repatriate her to the Philippines as the hospital recommended that she be accompanied on the plane by a doctor.
They could not find one despite looking extensively for weeks, Cecilia Cardona, senior account at an advertising firm and a colleague of Santos, said.
An outsourced company was arranged to provide a doctor for the repatriation. Although discounted, the total cost of repatriation amounted to Dh62,500.
Cardona said her company, despite having financial difficulties, tried its best to pay Dh42,500 and the Philippine consulate, through its assistance-to-nationals section, extended help of Dh20,000.
Both the company and Crismanne do not know how to settle the remaining hospital bill that amounts to Dh30,000. They said they have approached different charities, but have so far received no help.
“I am grateful that the hospital allowed us some time to settle the balance, but I do not know where I can get the money from. I am willing to go to jail if that would pay off my sister’s hospital bill. I really hope someone could help us,” Crismanne said.
