CamLara • Reaching Out to a Friend in Need

Hi, this is @mhel and also formerly known as watersnake101. But today this is not about but about a friend. I figured that this is the best way to introduce someone to the community and share his story.

Last Wednesday while I was working from home, a friend and colleague from work sent me a message. He told me that they were doing a medical fundraiser to help out our common friend named Cam. It has been a while since I last spoke with Cam. FB is one way to see how your friends are doing but I stopped using FB for quite some time now except if I am looking for an item or sharing our YT channel. In short, I had no idea what was going on in people's lives. Not that I don't want to know how my friends are doing but FB has been stressful for me and has been a trigger to my anxiety.

I asked my friend what is wrong with cam and he said that he had an operation to remove a tumor in his intestine. Initially, they needed 80 thousand pesos or around ($1,564 USD) for the operation and a fundraiser was done at the office and also with some help from friends and family they were able to raise enough money.

I immediately checked my FB for some updates and I found a post from his desperate sister.

Translation

I am asking for help and putting my pride aside asking for a little bit of help so my brother can have his operation. The hospital is asking us 80k pesos ($1564 USD) for the operation......we do not know any more where we will get that much money. My brother has health insurance amounting to 200K pesos ($3,910 USD). I was already used up because of our stay in the hospital. I'm sorry I am just trying if someone could give a little help. I don't know anymore who I could turn to so my bother could get his treatment.

A cry for help from a desperate sister. I felt bad about myself as I just knew about this and I could not just stand by and not do anything.

I talked about my friend in our community #theterminal Discord channel and asked if it would be proper to do a post about a medical fundraiser for a friend at the office. I was hesitant because I do not know if my post will be accepted by the hive community. We all know that there are a lot people out there who exploit other people and take advantage of the kindness of people.

We decided to create a new hive account for Cam other than using my own account. This way it will be more transparent for everyone. @thekittygirl worked on getting Cam a new account so we can share his story.

There are three of us who have the keys to this account @mhel @thekittygirl and @jamerussell. I think that this is the best way to handle this account. This account will be handed over to Cam or his siblings once they are ready. Right now I do not want to trouble them with the mechanics as they have been thru a lot and still coping with their situation.

I never asked for donations during our conversation but my friend @jamerussell jumped in right away and sent some help. James is a good friend as he helped me to get back up with encouragement and to be able to start creating content again during my dark times. He is a tough guy with a golden heart, he is one of the people who brings hope to humanity as we know life today has been crazy. Helping and not asking for anything in return. I hope one day we could meet in person and thank him personally for all the help he has given.

I immediately converted it to pesos so I could send them the funds as soon as possible as I do not know if they still have money to spend at the hospital.

I talked with Cam's sister and transferred the funds to her account right away.

She also shared her brother's medical abstract on FB for transparency and I could see that they were admitted on Jan 19.

After paying for the operation they were still left with a huge bill amounting to 138K pesos or ($2,697.90). Cam is the breadwinner of their family with a younger sister and brother. Both of their parents have already passed away. I could not imagine how hard it could be for them but they are happy to still have each other. To make matters worse their medical bill was ramping up and costing them almost around 15k pesos per day or ($300).

I will be telling you something that some of you would not believe. In our country, there are hospitals here that would not let you leave if your bill is not paid in full. They would not accept partial payments or promissory notes. Your hospital bill will just keep ramping up and push you deeper into debt. I have also heard of stories of mothers who gave birth and could not pay. Their babies are held by the hospital until the bill is paid in full. I thought they were just rumors but this happened to them. I opted out the name of the hospital to avoid any issues and I do not want to spread hate. It is just something to be aware of from this other side of the world. The sad but true.

Cam's sister made a hard decision to get them out of this dilemma. She made a loan so they could get out of the hospital. I am not sure who she asked for the loan from but I think it was for the best rather than being charged $300 per day.

I asked if they could provide more photos of Cam so I can share them in my story. Cam is embarrassed to have his photos taken. We don't want to force him to something he does not want. He is the kind of person who tries to work all his problems by himself and never asking for help even though he is crying inside. He never reaches out until his sister cried for help thru FB. These are the only two photos he approved to share. You could also find his FB page here camlara.

As of now they are back home and resting well to recover. His sister is working at a cafe to help with the expenses since Cam cannot work yet. I was affected by his story and felt that I am not a good friend. We are not rich and also struggling in life and this is one of the best ways I could help. I cannot visit him due to health restrictions but I'll keep checking on him online if possible.

We appreciate you staying for a while to listen to Cam's story. I hope they could personally share and introduce themselves soon here at the Hive community once they are ready.

You can find how he created the amazing border on the link Divider
Thank you to @frittro who created the divider for this post that embodies Philippines and the Hive community.