Giovanni Mirabueno, a.k.a. "Charlie Tango," the founder of Unit Black Division in Hong Kong, has made an appeal to the Philippine airsoft community that jolted them into action. His brother's wife has given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Isabella Margarita Mirabueno, but unfortunately, she was born with multiple congenital anomalies. Isabella was born with a congenital heart disea­se, diagnosed as Tetralogy of fallot with PDA or TOF, her heart has a huge hole and her PDA,where unoxygenated blood pass through to get to her lungs is narrow. She was also born with a polycystic left kidney,meaning her left kidney is basically not working at all.

While the baby is on her way to full recovery, the parents are beset with hospital bills that are just too high for them to pay for immediately. The baby can be discharged and be home to be taken care of fully by her parents, but the hospital, the Philippine Heart Center, has refused to release her, until they settle all their hospital bills.  Given the high costs of health care in the Philippines, and the parents working as call centre agents, settling the hospital bill immediately is an impossible task for them. The mother has taken a leave without pay to take care of the baby, leaving the father to work harder.

The actual hospital bill right now is Php 378,764.58 (US$9,188.85/€6,295.65), excluding the professional fees of doctors, with the main surgeon already waving his professional fees. This is equivalent to almost two (2) years' worth of salaries for a call centre agent in the Philippines.

No amount of appeal and promise that the bill would be paid on an installment basis over the months, the hospital still refuses to budge. With this, Sir Charlie Tango took up the cudgels for his brother by posting the appeal at various airsoft community forums in the Philippines. There are efforts to raise money such as "Game for Cause" being organised by the United Airsoft Alliance (UAA) and ACM Airsoft (the .com group, not .org), but more effort is needed to help Baby Isabella come home to her family.

We have picked up the story from the forums and learning of this story, we appeal to everyone in the airsoft community around the world to take time to read this and help Baby Isabella. Any amount that you can contribute to have her released immediately would be very much appreciated by the Mirabueno family.

Popularairsoft.com, through its company, Billion Tribes Limited, can take donations on behalf of the Mirabueno family. We shall be sending the amount raised to the Mirabueno Family and we shall send them the list of those who have donated for them to thank personally. We accept payments via Paypal and you can send immediately your donation with whatever amount you want by clicking the Paypal donate button below:

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We have gotten in touch with Baby Isabella's father, John Paul Mirabueno, and this is the story:

Isabella margarita mirabueno was born Oct. 2,2007. She came to this world prematurely,only weighing 3lbs or 1.4 kilograms. She was born with multiple congenital anomalies such as a congenital heart disease and a polycystic left kidney.

Her heart has a big hole and her pulmonary artery is blocked or too narrow which led to her being "cyanotic" she turns blue due to the lack of oxygen curculating her system thus the term "blue baby".

Last Nov. 18 she was admitted to Philippine heart center because she had an "episode". Based on tests done on her, it was found out that her pulmonary artery is "closing" and an emergency procedure needed to be administered at the soonest possible time.

Isabella needed to undergo a surgery called BTS Shunt, where a very small tube called a "goretex" needs to be placed where oxygen can pass.

On November 21,2007, she went under the knife. During the first 24 hour in the recovery room,she was responding very well, as a matter of fact, she was exyubated from using a respirator right away and we were informed by our doctors that she may not need to go to the ICU anymore and go directly to regular room for a full recovery.

Unfortunately, there was no room available at that time so she needed to make a stop on the ICU. That's where all the complications started.

The unavailability of a room came as a blessing in disguise otherwise, she could not have made it if she stayed in a regular room. At barely 2 months, Isabella went through a lot of complications which led to one infection after another. Her lungs were flooded with fluids and her kidneys stopped working. The leve of toxins in her body went high than normal and there is no way these toxins can get out of her system because she couldn't urinate. The doctors had no choice but to administer dialysis on her.

Isabella is not your average baby. She is a fighter and she made it. After 20 days of stay in the ICU, she recovered and is well enough to transfer to a regular room.

On the 12th of Dec. 2007 she was ready to move to a regular room.

Unfortunately, the hospital wont allow her to move to a private room to recover fully because our credit status in the hospital was already suspended. No matter how our doctors explain to the hospital the need for my baby to stay in a regular room because her immune system is so low, she is too prone to infection, the hospital won't allow it unless we pay an amount of P290,000 out our running bill of P318,000 at the time. Me and my wife had no choice.

She moved to a semi private room shared with 2 other patients.

We need financial help.

Me and my wife work as call center agents in the Philippines. I am practically the only one working right now since my wife in on unpaid leave to take care of our little Isabella.

Even if I have work, I simply couldn't afford all the hospital expenses.

I am appealling to anyone with a kind heart for monetary donations of any amount so Isabella can go home. I completely understand how difficult the times are right now, and I am not asking for too much, any amount will go a long long way.

Isabella is actually doing fine already. It's just a matter of taking her home with us. We've been given clearance for discharge already it's just that we can't leave the hospital yet because we could not pay the hospital bill.

Currently, we are still in the hospital. Last January 18 marked our 2 months of stay in the hospital. First of all, allow me to say thank you for taking your time out to call me and for your willingness to help. On behalf of my family, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I am nothing but a stranger to you yet you are willing to help me. The Airsoft community has been very good to me and Isabella. I've been getting a lot of help from your community and hopefully someday, one way or another, I can repay all your kindness and generosity.

We are currently staying at a 3 bed ward at the third floor of the main hospital building with room number C 333A in case you want to visit and at the same time you can call me up at (63-2) 916-2329786 to check on her condition.

Thus, we need to have Baby Isabella released soon and come home to her loving family. The longer she stays in the hospital, the more in danger she is as she is exposed to all possible diseases and infections inside the hospital, given her fragile condition. And also the longer she stays, the more the bills pile up making it even much harder for her parents to pay for.

Please help Baby Isabella, whether by giving donations thru Paypal:

Or email the Philippine Heart Center and pressure them to allow her to go home with her parents at [email protected].

We will give the latest updates on her condition here, and post the list of friends who have donated via Paypal.

We thank you so much for all the help you can give to Baby Isabella. LET'S ALL  GET HER HOME.

 

More on Isabella's medical problem by clicking this link.