‘I asked for a river, they gave me the ocean’

Hemangioma is a non-cancerous growth of blood vessels on the head, neck, torso, liver and face. It can either be a small, flat, red mark, or a raised bump. It tends to be harmless and disappear over time.

Alejandro Campaña Jr.’s hemangioma was different though. He was born with the condition in the face and was teased all his life by mean adults.

“I heard all the ugly words said about me,” Campaña recalls.

The large, dark growth on his face would repulse children so neighbors discouraged their kids from playing with him.

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, couldn’t afford it.

So Campaña 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 says in a post on the Facebook page of Tzu Chi Philippines. “I had no one to depend on but myself.”

Campaña decided to seek financial assistance for an operation when the growth had encroached on his right eye, affecting his vision and putting him at risk of accidents.

“I ride a motorcycle to work,” he recalls. “Sometimes, I’ll be surprised to see another rider driving so close to me.”

He remembered the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation (TCMF) from his previous job at a water tank company. While he was lifting tanks up one of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Campus’ buildings, he happened to look into the distance, in the direction of the Tzu Chi Eye Center (TCEC).

“That’s where I got the idea to come here (TCEC),” he says.

TCEC helped Campana undergo free surgery at the Metropolitan Medical Center in Sta. Cruz, Manila on 23 November.

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’s 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.”

The bandages from a surgery in late November were still on Campaña’s face when he joined TCMF’s last quarterly Charity Day for the year on 8 December at the Buddhist Tzu Chi Campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Still, they’re a minor inconvenience compared to the condition he lived with for 56 years.