Working away from the family is a huge challenge that many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are forced to endure but such becomes a bigger challenge when someone in the family gets sick – especially if that someone turns out to be the OFW himself/herself!
Last April 18, 2015, 35-year-old Perlite Almonte who worked as supervisor in a courier company in Dubai was admitted at Rashid Hospital after she was discovered unconscious in the bathroom. Due to bleeding in her brain, the OFW went into coma that would last 9 months.
“Perlite underwent a surgical intervention to drain the blood. Due to the critical location of the bleeding, the respiratory and hemodynamic functions were affected, and she was kept on a ventilator for more than two weeks, hence the decision was taken to perform tracheostomy, which helped her to gradually be weaned off the mechanical ventilation,” revealed the Head of Critical Care Department at Rashid Hospital, Dr. Zeyad Al Rais. “We also started early physiotherapy to enhance her muscular power, while she was in coma.”
When she regained consciousness in January 2016, Dr. Rais was able to start her neurological rehabilitation plan and an intensive active physiotherapy plan which helped her recover quickly. Her children were also flown to Dubai last year to spend some time with her and help hasten her recovery.
Today, she can now walk without other people’s assistance and her tracheostomy tube has been removed. She is also out of the ventilator and is expected to be well enough that she can go back to the Philippines within a few months.
She still has difficulty in speaking but the cheerful OFW was grateful, “I have spent over a year and nine months at Rashid Hospital, I now consider the doctors and nurses at the hospital my family. I am truly thankful for the treatment I have received at Rashid Hospital. I am glad that I am recovering and I can’t wait to go to the Philippines to see my children.”