I am writing today about what happened to my nephew. His name is Kevin. He is 9 years old. His just 3 days younger than my youngest son Jared. He is kind of quiet kid, I think because they just moved to Mindanao last year from Manila. He is still adjusting to everything here. He went to school with my other nephew Joshua who is 4 days older than him. They went to the same school so that Kevin can adjust easily, but they are not in the same class so that no competition will occur. His been studying in that school for 4 months. He is learning Bisaya quickly too.
Then in early November his teacher asked him to throw the garbage. The teacher maybe didn’t know that the garbage pit had fire in it. Somebody started fire there to burn the garbage. Kevin went and threw the garbage and somehow he fell inside the pit. He fell with his feet first. He had on some sandals on that day. The sandals were eatin by the fire right away and his feet. One foot, 4 toes got amputated due to sever burned. I guess at first he didn’t know that he had lost his toes. During dressing time he was just laying down, he didn’t see when the nurses would do the cleaning. After they put the bandages on and he was brought to his room he was wondering why the other foot was taller than the other one. My nephew who watch him all the time and his dad explained to him of what happened to his toes. My nephew told me that his cousin Kevin needs to have counseling after his out in the hospital. It would be hard for Kevin to accept he lost his toes.
During dressing time my brother can’t really handle seeing the burning feet of his son. Luckily my nephew has stronger stomach and he can handle seeing it. My nephew said its really hard seeing it but he knows that almost all of us had the feelings like my brother that can’t handle it. If it would be me I know I would pass out right away by just seeing the blood. Just looking at him at the hospital I was wondering how could he handle the time he had the accident and on the way to the hospital. That must be an excruciating pain. Just thinking about it put shiver in my body.When I brought my kids to see Kevin for the first time in the hospital, they really had a hard time watching him. They could see that Kevin was in pain. They tried to comfort him and talked to him. There are times that Kevin’s facial expression changed because of the pain. My kids tried to massage his legs just to ease the pain. I think it helped a little bit.
Kevin had the accident in GenSan. He stayed there for a few weeks and he was brought to Davao and had the surgery here. When I first saw him here in Davao it was hard looking at his foot even with the bandage on. His been staying here in Davao for over a month now and he just had his surgery a few days ago. He might be going home in 2 weeks time. My family decided for him to stay in the farm when he is recovering and healing. The air is cleaner there. He will just be brought to the city to be cleaned and see his doctor. I guess he will have therapy soon for his muscle I think. It will be awhile for him to walk again. My brother will be flying out of the country soon to work abroad. He was called to report to work early January. His employer understands the situation.
The picture was taken last night and he seems okay now. He will be in the hospital for 2 to 3 more weeks. I am not sure if he will be sent to the hospital in GenSan soon. He is still continuing his studies. His trying to catch up. The teachers were helping him on that. I am hoping and praying that he will recover soon and hope he will not too depressed later.
Hi Feyma – Our prayers and best wishes are for Kevin. Here’s hoping that he can further adjust to this new situation. Kids are pretty resilient – he should do well.
Hi PaulK – Thank you so much for the nice thoughts. I will let you guys know how he is in a few months time.
Take care!
That is really messed up. The teacher sounds like a complete idiot. Didn’t know there was a fire in the pit? If something like that happened in the states, the child and his parents would be well compensated.
Hi Don – I know what you mean. I just hope that the school really learned a lot of what happened though. I don’t want any kid to go through what Kevin been went for the past 2 months. It’s really hard on Kevin and the family.
Good thing the school are shouldering all the expenses which they should. They paid a lot already being in GenSan hospital for a month and here in Davao for a little over a month now and the surgery.
Thank you for the comment. Take care!
Hi Feyma, I hope Kevin will continue good recovery. From an American viewpoint, this appears to be negligence on the part of the school and if something like that took place here, the school would be sued for millions of dollars in damages and for full payment of all medical and rehabilitation costs. The teacher that sent him to empty the trash would proabably be fired from her job at that school.
I realize things are different there but I hope the school is at least doing something to offset the cost of the medical bills for all of this.
Hi Bob New York – To be honest I don’t really know what my brother’s next step. I didn’t really asked him anything yet regarding that matter. He might already be satisfied by the school’s action right now by them paying the hospitalization, surgery and the therapy later for Kevin. For me as long as they do what’s best for Kevin I’m okay on that. But I’m not the parents though.
Thank you so much for stopping by. Good to hear from you again!
Dear Bob,
I feel so bad for Kevin. How is the family doing financially?
If they are in difficuly, perhaps you can accept donations. Please let me and your readers know.
Dave LaBarr
Hi David – Asking for donations for a family matter is not something that I would ever do, but I appreciate your kindness in offering. Actually, though, in the case of Kevin, it is my understanding that the school is bearing all of the costs.
HI David LaBarr – Thank you so much for your nice comment and for your kind offering. Yes, we don’t asked here just for our own personal need. Thank you though for the offer. Come Christmas time we ask here for donations for the poor people. Not sure if you saw our LIP drive.
Anyway, good to see you here. Keep reading. Thank you for stopping by!
Take care!
Dear Feyma,
Yes I saw your drive for LIP. I didn’t respond this year because we have been donating through my wife’s Good News Baptist Church with Pastor Randy Cutad. We are very involved with this Church and the wonderful people who are a part of it.
God Bless,
Dave LaBarr
Feyma: Poor kid… Hope he feels better soon. Accidents like this, unfortunately, are all too common here.
Hi John – Thank you for your thought. To be honest with you I didn’t even think about this matter before. But after Kevin’s accident it something I think a lot now especially while cooking here at the house. While I was visiting him there at the hospital I saw bunch of kids there burned by boiling water or from the fire. One kid that I noticed he was just a little over a year old. He has bandages from his stomach down. I asked my nephew (who was watching Kevin) of what happened to that little guy. He told me that he got burned by a soup(sabaw). The bowl tip over on his little body. He was burned from his stomach down, his legs got amputated. Unfortunately his private part got really damaged and he died. All the people that knew that kid were really sad. Even the doctor and nurses cried.
Anyway, thank you John.
Have a good day!
Prayers with Kevin. That must have been an awful experience.
Hi Jawz – Thank you so much for the prayer. Yes for sure really bad.
Nice to see you here!
Take care.
Hi Feyma..so sorry to hear about Kevin. But I love how big his smile is in that picture! That’s the kind of smile that just says, “Everything will be alright”
We’ll be praying for his fast recovery…
Hi Mita – He is feeling a little better now. He seems playful now. He might be out from the hospital next week. Hopefully.
Thank you for you guys prayer. Hey good to see you here!
Take care and God bless!
Incredible! That teacher is so irresponsible. Is it the students job to throw the garbage? If this happened to my child that teacher and the school will pay dearly.
Hi Miss August – I guess the students here has to do it. It shocked me that in a grade school department they had fire burning inside the campus. Really accident waiting to happened.
They learned now it cost them a lot of money though.
Good to see you here again. Take care!
I can see that his very brave kids.You can’t see on his face,the pain that he felt…GOD BLESS YOU Kevin…You can make it…^_^
Hi Angie – Thank you so much for your nice thoughts. Highly appreciated.
Take care!