By Vir B. Lumicao
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| Marlyn first went abroad when her son Edmar was just a year old |
If things worked according to plan, 51-year-old Filipina
domestic worker Marlyn Figuracion could still be alive today.
That’s because her 26-year-old son, Edmar, who works with
her in the same household in Hong Kong, had volunteered to donate part of his
liver to try and save his mother from a life-threatening ailment.
But Edmar’s loving offer to repay his mother for all her
sacrifices was in vain as Marlyn succumbed to autoimmune hepatitis on Jan 7 at Queen Mary
Hospital.
Both mother and son worked as domestic helpers for a local
couple and their three young sons in Pokfulam. Marlyn had been with the family
for the past 12 years of her 25-year-stay in Hong Kong.
Edmar said his mother’s illness was unexpected because she
looked healthy and never complained about health problems.
Two years ago, Marlyn requested her employers to hire her
son after her daughter, the older of two children, went home after four years
of working for the same household.
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| Marlyn never complained about being sick before, says her grieving son |
The Figuracions come from a farming family in Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur and, like many in rural Philippines,
the able-bodied members work abroad mostly as domestic helpers to seek economic
uplift for their families.
To the mother, bringing her son to Hong
Kong was her way of making up for her absence since he was barely
a year old. “She pampered me as if I was still a little boy when I just arrived
here,” Edmar said.
Perhaps, the son realized later, his mother wanted a family
member to be around in times of need.
That moment came on Dec 1 when Edmar noticed his mother’s jaundiced
eyes, making him suspect she had some serious health problem. He said she had
not been sick before.
Edmar advised her to see a doctor, but his mother reportedly
insisted she was fine.
Then on Saturday night, Dec 5, Marlyn started vomiting and
looked very sick, said Edmar. He noted on a calendar that his mother’s skin
color had also turned yellow.
On their day off the next day, he took her mother to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wanchai for a checkup. Doctors
there must have realized something was seriously wrong and began a series of tests.
Before the day ended, Marlyn was diagnosed with acute
hepatitis and was confined in the hospital. A week later, they told her she had
autoimmune hepatitis, a disease in which her own immune system was attacking and destroying her liver.
The doctors told Edmar they would try and treat his mother,
but if her condition did not improve, they would transfer her to Queen Mary
Hospital for a liver
transplant.
Marlyn was moved on Jan 2 to Queen Mary, where doctors determined
she was in dire need of a liver transplant.
Edmar said he was told that his mother could wait for a
brain-dead donor, but that could take between one to two months. The
alternative was to do a transplant from a living donor. Doctors told him that
if he donated, the risk he faced during the procedure was just 0.5%.
When he got home that night, Edmar decided to donate part of
his liver to save his mother. In his mind, this was probably the reason he came
to Hong Kong, to try and save his mother who
had worked for more than two decades to bring comfort to their family.
Edmar called up his own family in Ilocos Sur, then told the
doctors at Queen Mary the next morning about his decision.
On Jan. 4, Edmar submitted himself to a series of tests
including a Covid-19 test to prepare him for the transplant. Everything went
well and he was confirmed as a match for his mother.
But at noon on Wednesday, Jan 6, Marlyn suddenly fell into a
coma so the doctors called off the transplant and sent Edmar home. At 6am the
next day, they called him to say, “Come back, your mom is not OK.”
Edmar returned to Queen Mary and went straight to his mother’s
ICU bedside after the doctors allowed him time to be with her. At 10:15am, the
heartbeat monitor flattened and the beep lengthened. The doctors and nurses came
and told him Marlyn was gone.
The deceased’s remains are now in the Queen Mary mortuary
but will be at Po Fook Memorial Hall in Taiwai this Sunday, 9am to 2pm, for
public viewing.
