Request for Prayers

Dear readers,

I am taking a break from my regular food and travel blogging to share this heart-breaking story with you. It's about my cousin who got into a terrible freak, if I must say, accident two nights ago. She works at a bank that's very near her house. Despite the short distance, my uncle would still drive out of the village to pick her up. Yes, he's THAT protective of her.

On that fateful evening, my uncle's car broke down forcing my cousin to go home on her own. She was already standing right across the gate of their village along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City. She was at the sidewalk waiting for the right moment to cross when a drunk tricycle driver went up to the sidewalk, hit her, dragged her down and running the entire tricycle over her. Her clothes were in shreds and the kind by-standers quickly brought her to Quezon City Memorial Hospital.

We were not sure if she was still conscious then but we were told that she was already throwing up blood and more blood were gushing out of her ears as well. We felt that if given the proper treatment and with a more experienced set of doctors, they would have been able to quickly do something to save her. Sadly, all they gave her was a bottle of IV and called my aunt (her dad's sister) to inform her of what happened. Just imagine the time wasted from the moment she was brought in up until the time our relatives were informed.

My aunt immediately called Chinese General Hospital and requested for an ambulance. Unbelievably, it took the ambulance 3 long hours to arrive at the QC Memorial Hospital. (Which makes me wonder if they park their ambulance in Laguna or in Tarlac for it to take that long to arrive...sheesh)

From the time she was brought to Chinese General Hospital, she was already in coma and was said to be brain dead. Last night, her parents and fiance insist that she be operated on despite the doctors saying that she has 20-30% of survival and they're not sure whether or not she'll still wake up.

Since we both belong to a big family, I've never met this cousin of mine yet, but I surely know of her as she was also set to get married this year. It's really heart-breaking to hear more stories about the accident.

The drunk tricycle driver is now in jail but really, no amount of punishment given to him can bring my cousin back to normal. How I wish our medical practitioners are more knowledgeable especially towards serious emergency cases such as this. Every minute second counts.

There are a lot of if onlys going around my mind since last night...

... IF ONLY the tricycle driver was not drunk then he would have not went up to the sidewalk and hit her

... IF ONLY the people at Quezon City Memorial Hospital knew exactly what to do then they would have performed the proper emergency procedure on her

... IF ONLY the ambulance from Chinese General Hospital responded right away then they would have brought her in at once

I would like to call on your help to pray as that really is the only thing we can all do now... we will continue to pray and wait and hope for miracles to happen.

May this story serves as an eye-opener for all drivers and medical practitioners out there. May we always bear in mind that whatever we choose to do does not only affect ourselves but of a million others out there. 

[UPDATE: April 1]
This evening, Cathy has already joined our Creator and is surely watching over her family, her dear fiance and loved ones. RIP Cathy...