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THE HEMANGIOMA TREATMENT FOUNDATION
PE Bobby Lim, RC Makati West
(in a letter to SAG Chochit Tobias, May 19, 2008)
Dear SAG Chochit,
I am writing to you to tell you about a medical foundation in which I have been actively involved with called the The Hemangioma Treatment Foundation or “THTF” (www.hemangiomatreatment.org).
“Hemangioma”refers to the most common tumor of childhood, afflicting 1 in 10 children. It is estimated that 400,000 children born in the USA every year suffer from vascular birthmark and malformations, and local physicians tell me of similar statistics in the Philippines.
THTF was founded by Dr. Marcelo Hochman, one of the leading head and neck plastic surgeons in the US and a renowned specialist in this field. He performed multiple treatments on our daughter, Brittany, who was born at Makati Medical Center in 1998 and who suffered from a compound hemangioma that developed shortly after her birth (you can find her on the above website). Today, Brittany is a second-grader at Brent International School.
The global mission of THTF is to contribute towards funding the treatment of underprivileged children, as well as to educate and train physicians in monitoring, counseling, and treatment through active training and assistance provided by Dr. Hochman and his Hemangioma Treatment Center in Charleston, South Carolina. In this way, THTF is able to support the development of sustainable in-country treatment programs that can eventually be run by local physicians and other specialists.
Now, through a local alliance spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Makati West (“RCMW”) and the Makati Medical Center (“MMC”), we are bringing the expertise and medical resources offered by Dr. Hochman and THTF to the Philippines! While our focus will be to support a philanthropically oriented series of regular missions to treat the underprivileged and to develop and nurture local medical know-how, we are also excited about the long term potential for the Philippines to evolve into a “niche” medical destination for the treatment of these afflictions.
Given the outstanding local medical community and the competitive cost of treatment and care available in the Philippines, I believe there is great potential for Manila to one day function as a regional treatment destination, including through the work of THTF and MMC, on-going partnership and referrals with the Hemangioma Treatment Center in the US, and through other rotary clubs and similar organizations elsewhere in the region.
The initial mission of this program will be on May 26 to 29, 2008 at the Makati Medical Center. The launch of the program will be on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 8:00am in the Ledesma Hall, 9th Floor, Makati Medical Center. We are pleased to have initial support from numerous reputable sponsors in the Philippines, including the GMA Kapuso Foundation, who have already brought us several children in need.
We are also extremely fortunate to have received commitments both from Dr. Hochman, as well as his colleague, Dr. John Cure (Director of Interventional Radiology at the Medical University of South Carolina), an expert in imaging and sclerotherapy/embolization of vascular lesions, to make themselves available to travel from the US to the Philippines in May, in order to initiate the training and to oversee the initial case treatments.
We hope that you can be our special guest during the launch of the program
Yours Sincerely,
PE Bobby Lim
Rotary Club of Makati West
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