While Christian David Delmonte was fixing the roof of their home in 2021, he fell and fractured his left midshaft femur. Delmonte underwent surgery and was confined for three months at the Philippines Orthopedic Center (POC) in Quezon City.

Delmonte was told that his fracture could be fixed with an intramedullary femur nail with a locking screw — a procedure that uses an implant worth P50,000. The amount was well beyond his reach as he already lost his job as a delivery rider.

Partner Myrelle Espinosa’s income from selling snacks and drinks also was not enough to cover the cost of the implant.

“Through my prayer, I met the Tzu Chi Foundation and we were able to overcome our challenges,” Espinosa recalls, according to the humanitarian organization founded by Taiwanese nun Master Cheng Yen.

The POC referred Delmonte to Tzu Chi, which shouldered the operation expense.

The surgery performed in March 2022 helped Delmonte walk and work again, a thankful Espinosa told officials of POC and Tzu Chi Philippines (TCP) at the Buddhist Tzu Chi Campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila on 10 March.

Other POC patients were also aided by Tzu Chi and the assistance is expected to continue with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the hospital and the foundation on the same day Espinosa narrated her story.

TCP CEO Henry Yunez and POC chief Dr. Jose Brittanio Pujalte Jr. led the signing of the MoA.

“Through this MoA we have already committed to seal our mutual shared goals and aspirations to help more patients,” Yunez said, according to TCP.

“This partnership reaffirms our shared missions to serve, strengthen and improve access to health care, and to reduce the economic burdens faced by so many indigent patients in our country,” said TCP deputy CEO Woon Ng.

Pujalte Jr. said they “look forward to being together for many more years to come.”

In the Philippines, orthopedic procedures and implants can set a patient back by hundreds of thousands if not millions of pesos. This forces the financially challenged to incur huge debts or delay much-needed surgery as they scrounge for funds.

With POC and TCP’s common vision of helping indigent patients of the hospital, expensive orthopedic relief can be overcome.