October 20, 2026
A donor’s inspiration
By Joy Rojas
Sometime in 2025, Roselyn Flores entered the room of her son Steven Nico, and found his bed full of pillows. “What’s all this?” she wondered to herself. “But I didn’t ask him, and he doesn’t tell me and his father anything. He keeps things to himself.”
Eventually, Flores was forced to speak up when his mother noticed that he had lost a significant amount of weight. Based on numerous tests, he had a serious heart problem, specifically culture negative infective endocarditis and flail mitral valve with severe mitral regurgitation.
Simply put, an infection of the inner lining of the heart damages the heart’s valves, causing a backflow of blood in the heart. When the rest of the heart and body are deprived of blood and oxygen, it results in heart failure or the inability of the heart to pump efficiently. This leads to symptoms Flores was already experiencing: an off-sounding heartbeat and difficulty breathing, especially while lying on a flat surface. Hence, the need for pillows to prop him up.
When he started showing other alarming symptoms—a fever and dangerously low blood pressure—the family rushed him to the hospital.
Flores, an operations manager for a BPO in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, maxed out his health card and savings while he was being treated with three different antibiotics for community-acquired pneumonia and other infections. When he was discharged, he went back to work but continued taking antibiotics daily for a month and a half via an IV line on his hand. For that, they hired a nurse to administer the drugs.
“How can I pay for my medicines if I don’t have a salary?” said Flores, the breadwinner of his family. His father Fernando is a diabetic with cataracts; his sister Kristina Dennis has a heart issue too. Any extra money comes from the modest sari-sari (convenience) store run by his mother Roselyn.
“I know my co-workers understand when I have to skip meetings because I don’t feel well,” he added. “But it can be embarrassing.”
To prevent a relapse, doctors recommended he go straight to valve surgery, a procedure that would set him back by P1.5 million. Exasperated, Flores declared he might as well be dead.
“A coffin is cheaper than surgery!” he said in despair.
Hearing his words hurt Roselyn, but they also strengthened her resolve to do something for her son. She approached friends and relatives for financial help, and submitted requirements for medical assistance to government agencies, commuting by bus and jeep to their offices before dawn and lining up with the rest of the masses. Tired and worried, she once got off a jeep and, for the life of her, didn’t know where she was because her thoughts were elsewhere.
“There were times when I cried from exhaustion,” she admitted. “But I just took it because I wanted my son to get well.”
And then, a breakthrough in September 2025. An aunt suggested they approach Tzu Chi Foundation, where Flores’s father underwent free cataract surgery on his right eye in 2023.
“They were easy to approach,” recalls Roselyn of her experience with Tzu Chi. “My husband’s operation was fast, we had no problem with the medicines, and we didn’t go hungry because they fed us. All we did was pay for our transportation fare.”
Through Tzu Chi’s Medical Assistance Program, Flores was given a one-time grant of P150,000, the largest amount he received from his mother’s solicitations. He was also introduced to cardiologist Dr. Kent Tan, whose expertise, care, and gentle demeanor gave him comfort and hope.
“I’ll never forget what he told me before my surgery,” said Flores, who underwent the life-saving procedure for half the cost at the Philippine Heart Center. “He said, ‘Don’t think you’re weak. Tell yourself you’re strong and you will get better.’”
The advice worked. Now symptom-free, the 35-year-old says he is living his second life, one made possible through the steadfast efforts of people who never gave up on him even when he did.
At his weakest was when he felt the strong bond of his family. “We were whole in this crisis,” he said.
He is greatly indebted to Tzu Chi, a foundation whose compassion and generosity are unmatched. And to think, he says in amazement, the resources that covered his surgery were from the pockets of people just like him—ordinary folks who simply want to help, or give back after the help they received.
“I googled Tzu Chi to check on what it does. It’s really built on the kindness of strangers,” he marveled. “I am alive because of the kindness of strangers.”
As such, his goal is to ensure his second chance at living doesn’t go to waste. “I’d like to be an inspiration to donors,” he said. “They just don’t give donations. They give hope. They save lives.”
Support Tzu Chi’s Medical Assistance Program and help more patients like Steven Nico Flores. Donate to the following Tzu Chi Foundation bank accounts:
Metrobank:
Account Name: Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines Inc.
Account Number: 163-3-163-07190-9
BDO:
Account Name: Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines Inc.
Account Number: 011-9-7800-180-0
(From left) Tzu Chi Charity Department Social Welfare Officer Jackie Raper and Social Service Officer Julie Collado, and Tzu Chi volunteers Esperanza Celon (in blue) and Emma del Rosario (in light gray) visit medical assistance beneficiary Steven Nico Flores and his parents Roselyn and Fernando (fourth, fifth, and sixth from left) in their home in Bacoor, Cavite, more than a year after his heart surgery.
Saved through donations pooled from the kindness of strangers, Steven Nico Flores (center) can now help others seeking medical assistance by putting money in a coin can, given to him by Tzu Chi volunteer Emma del Rosario.
Aside from an off-sounding heartbeat and shortness of breath, Steven Nico Flores dropped a significant amount of weight because of his heart condition.
Through Tzu Chi’s Medical Assistance Program and the guidance of cardiologist Dr. Kent Tan, Steven Nico Flores underwent valve replacement surgery at the Philippine Heart Center in September 2025.
(From left) Steven Nico Flores with his mother Roselyn, sister Kristina Dennis, and father Fernando. “We were whole in this crisis,” he described of the support his family showed him when his illness left him discouraged.
Having overcome the symptoms of his heart condition, Steven Nico Flores is grateful to Tzu Chi for giving him the opportunity to live his second life.