Rheynell Kadusale is a 9-year-old boy from Parola (Tondo), one of the biggest slums of Metro Manila. We came to know him a few years ago while carrying out our teaching apostolate outreach for children in this marginalized area.
Rheynell does not go to school due to a problem he developed on his right leg just after birth. Rheynell’s mother says that this deformity in his right leg came about due to a failure in completing medical vaccination for polio.
Fr. Francis asked Zacchaeus and I to take charge of assisting this child. It has not been easy at all, knocking from door to door to seek medical advice on his case, one which most of the doctors termed as a rare case and declared that amputation would be the only way forward. We tried hard not to go for that option considering Rheynell’s age.
Through prayers and without stopping to find other solutions, we found, at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, a good doctor who advised us to carry out proper physiotherapy which would last for 12 weeks, and a well-designed prosthetic fitting that would help in stretching his leg before surgery could be performed so as to join all the undeveloped bones.
So that was precisely what Zacchaeus and I have been doing with Rheynell. Accompanied by his mother, Marisa, we have been with him at intense physiotherapy sessions and meetings with the physicians.
Today, for the first time, Rheynell was fitted with the prosthetic … it was a moving moment to see the child try to walk on his own!
Ambrose Wanyonyi, Philosophy Student in Manila
