The importance of emergency fund

My son was hospitalized for eight days because of dengue. In his first two days of sickness we thought that it was just an ordinary case of fever because his platelets were above 200 thus normal.When the fever did not subside on the third day we decided to bring him to the hospital just to make sure. Our suspicion was confirmed when his platelets plummets to less than 200 and reaching as low as 84 on the sixth day. His chilling never stopped and his blood pressure dropped to 90/50.

I thought I am losing my son. I lost count on how many medicines I bought and how many dose of dextrose they inserted on his veins. As a parent, the fear factor was there. We had only prayers to hold into and the rosary our sole company on those agonizing eight nights. In that time of uncertainty, we literally knocked on heaven's door.

It was heaven's sent that his doctor was well-trained on handling dengue cases and she was accepting calls even past midnight. She instructed the nurses to monitor the vital sign of my son every two hours.

On the 7th day the platelets began to jumped to more than 100, the fever subsided and the blood pressure returned to normal. We thanked God for this turned of events.

As we contemplate on what happened, we accepted the fact that even though our house and our backyard are clean, the mosquitoes carrying dengue can fly from house to house and multiply quickly on rainy days. One family can not solve the continuous rise of dengue cases. Cleaning the surrounding should be a community effort and the local government should assists.

Meanwhile, I paid the hospital around P20,000. A huge amount that can be used to other important expenses. When I read the newspaper today that there is a dengue outbreak in other parts of the country, I feel for the parents who need money to buy medicines for his child. It is no joke to be sick in our country and those who have no income and no emergency fund will put the child in danger. These are the reasons why there are children dying of dengue though is a curable sickness.

As a parent our choice is clear: to save the life of our child .......notwithstanding the astronomical hospital bills in our country.