Pinoy couple in UAE seeks Dh50k to save daughter

A Filipino couple in the United Arab Emirates needs to raise Dh50,000 (P611,897) for surgery to save their prematurely born daughter.

Baby Samira Alegra was born a month early – on Oct. 19 – at GMC Hospital in Ajman, UAE news site Gulf News reported.

Weighing only 1.6 kilos, she has Patent Ductus Arteriosus or an unclosed hole in her aorta, and needs surgery.

Her mother Analiza Sales, 39, said Samira was born with a congenital heart disease and is currently at a neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU).

"Doctors at GMC Hospital in Ajman say she has a hole in her heart and needs an operation as soon as she’s fit for it,” she said.

She also has to pay for school expenses of eight-year-old Raul, husband Anthony Jasper's son.

“We are running out of options and we need your compassion and kindness to get us through these difficult times. We love our daughter so much and we are desperate to save our daughter’s life,” added Anthony, who now works as a salesman in a music store.

Sales said that as of Nov. 15, hospital bills had gone up to Dh47,000 "and the expenses keep stacking."

Yet, she said she earns only Dh4,000 as a supervisor at a photo studio while Anthony Jasper, 37, lost his Dh5,000 job at a preschool in February.

“I was the only one working regularly these past few months till Anthony got a job three weeks back. It has been months of struggle for my family all this while and it’s just got far worse,” she said. —Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

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