December 16, 2024
Tzu Chi covers beneficiary’s hemangioma surgery
By Joy Rojas
The bandages from a surgery in late November were still on Alejandro Campaña Jr.’s face when he joined Tzu Chi Foundation’s last quarterly Charity Day for the year on December 8 at the Buddhist Tzu Chi Campus (BTCC) in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Still, they’re a minor inconvenience compared to the condition he lived with for 56 years.
He was born with hemangioma, a non-cancerous growth of blood vessels on the head, neck, torso, liver, or in Campaña’s case, the face. According to clevelandclinic.org, a hemangioma can either be a small, flat, red mark, or a raised bump. Harmless, it tends to disappear over time, but his hemangioma stayed and grew, covering most of the right side of his face.
Because of it, Campaña was teased all his life, targeted by mean adults to instill fear among neighborhood children. Repulsed by the large, dark growth on his face, parents prevented their kids from playing with him. “I heard all the ugly words said about me,” he recalls.
As a child, he dreamed of having his hemangioma surgically removed. But Campaña, whose father worked in a vulcanizing shop and whose mother was a domestic helper, knew they couldn’t afford it, even if they tried.
So he let it be, and carried on as best he could. Married to Esther, a housekeeper, and the father of a 15-year-old daughter, he works as a warehouseman for a production company and is slowly paying for a house.
“I’m thankful that I had the courage to face life,” he reflects. “I had no one to depend on but myself.”
Despite his best efforts at tolerating his condition, Campaña finally decided to seek financial assistance for an operation. The growth had encroached on his right eye, affecting his job and putting him at risk for accidents. “I ride a motorcycle to work,” he explains. “Sometimes, I’ll be surprised to see another rider driving so close to me.”
He remembered the Tzu Chi Foundation from his previous job at a water tank company. While they were lifting tanks up one of BTCC’s buildings, he happened to look into the distance, in the direction of the Tzu Chi Eye Center. “That’s where I got the idea to come here,” he says.
The Eye Center referred him to Tzu Chi’s Charity Department, and when Campaña qualified as a medical assistance beneficiary, he underwent surgery at Metropolitan Medical Center in Sta. Cruz Manila on November 23.
As of this writing, Campaña is in the recovery stage. Given the size of his hemangioma, he encountered some minor issues post-surgery, he says. But otherwise, he is stable. “My doctor [general surgeon Ramon Lao] wants me to recover from my surgical wounds before we attend to my right eye.”
The bandages, however, cannot hide Campaña glee.
“I’m really grateful to God who led me to the Tzu Chi Foundation, so I could meet them and ask for help,” he says, holding back tears. “Thank you to the volunteers, the social workers, and to Dr. Ramon Lao, who took the time to treat me.
“Even if they just fixed my eye, that would have been enough. But Tzu Chi took care of the whole thing, they gave me such a big blessing. I just asked for a river, they gave me the ocean.”
Through Tzu Chi Foundation’s medical assistance program, Alejandro Campaña Jr. underwent surgery to remove a large hemangioma on the right side of his face last November 23 at the Metropolitan Medical Center in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Though generally harmless, the growth has affected the vision on his right eye.
Alejandro Campaña Jr. was born with a hemangioma, a non-cancerous growth of blood vessels on his face. Most hemangiomas are harmless and tend to disappear in time, but his stayed and grew to the point that it encroached on his right eye, compromising his vision.
Despite years of tolerating people’s teasing and harsh, painful words, Alejandro Campaña Jr. carried on with his life. He’s married to Esther, a housekeeper, and they are the parents of a 15-year-old girl. Campaña works as a warehouseman of a production company.
At Tzu Chi’s last quarterly Charity Day for 2024 for medical assistance beneficiaries on December 8, Alejandro Campaña Jr. (left) was accompanied by his wife Esther to claim two 10-kg sacks of rice and a bag of groceries.