'I called
on all saints' - Bunye |
| Inquirer News Service (26
May, 2003) |
|
DESPITE a painful back
ailment that made him miss the US state visit of President Macapagal-Arroyo, presidential
spokesperson Ignacio Bunye has not lost his sense of humor.
Three days before the President was to leave, Bunye was rushed to the Makati Medical
Center with a slipped disc, a spinal injury that made it very painful for him to stand or
even sit. He was confined at the hospital from May 14 to 22.
His doctors recommended surgery since he had the "worst type" of slipped disc,
but Bunye avoided the knife when his back responded to medication and physical therapy in
the first two days of confinement.
Last Saturday, Bunye was well enough to issue a statement.
True to form, he made fun of what happened to him.
Although his role in the state visit would have been crucial, Bunye said he has realized
that missing the trip was a blessing in disguise.
"Otherwise I would have landed not in Makati Med but in a US hospital. I would have
been charged in dollars."
Even if he had insisted on going, Bunye said he would not have been allowed out of the
airport since he was running a high fever at the time. A high fever is one of the symptoms
of SARS, which was causing some panic in the country then.
Bunye recalled how excruciating the pain was, how he had to be taken to the hospital on a
stretcher since he could no longer sit in a wheelchair.
"I must have called on all the saints, including those still waiting to be canonized,
to relieve the pain," he said.
"When I could not endure the pain any longer, I prayed: 'Dear Jesus, I surrender to
you all my pains.' It was at that moment that my turnaround started," he said.
Dona Z. Pazzibugan |
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