Cousin, new hip change life

Christmas came early for Rebecca Caballero. It arrived on Nov. 29 when she underwent hip replacement surgery at Holy Family Hospital. The story of how the 41-year-old woman from the Philippine island of Cebu ended up in Spokane is the stuff Christmas miracles are made of.

It’s the tale of how a concerned cousin, a caring doctor and a medical community came together to provide help for someone in desperate need. In May, Caballero’s cousin, Alma Schmidt, of Medical Lake, traveled to the Philippines to visit family. Averly Nelson, a geriatric psychiatrist at Eastern State Hospital, accompanied her.

When Schmidt observed Caballero at a family gathering she was dismayed to see how much pain her cousin endured. Due to a genetic condition, her right hip would continually dislocate. “She fell so many times,” Schmidt said, shaking her head. To make matters worse, Caballero had suffered polio as a child, leaving her left leg very weak. “She could hardly walk,” Nelson said.

Caballero’s family had no money for a hip replacement. She and her husband have four children. “Her husband sells newspapers and Rebecca sells flowers in front of a church,” said Schmidt. “They have no health insurance.”

For Caballero, her cousin’s arrival offered a ray of hope. “Every minute, every second there was pain,” Caballero said. “But I just worked. There was nothing else I could do.”

She approached Schmidt and Nelson and asked them if there was a way they could find a new hip for her. “I was so happy when Alma and Dr. Nelson came,” Caballero said. “I felt like it was my last chance for help.”

Moved by her plight, Nelson arranged for X-rays, and then brought them back to Spokane. A radiologist at Inland Imaging referred Nelson to orthopedic surgeon David Scott. At that point Nelson was just hoping to procure a prosthetic for Cabellero, figuring she’d have the surgery in the Philippines. But Scott said the procedure could be risky. He said, “I felt like she’d have a better outcome if she came here.”

Then to Nelson’s astonishment, Scott offered to perform the surgery for free. “It was a miracle,” said Schmidt. But there was more to come.

DePuy Orthopaedics agreed to donate the new hip, and Holy Family Hospital offered to cover the entire cost of her hospital stay. “The way this thing fell together is more a miracle than anything else,” said Nelson in amazement.

Now, all that remained was to get Caballero to the states. Nelson approached Norma Gavin of the Filipino American Association of the Inland Empire about a tax deferment. When Gavin heard Caballero’s story, she knew area Filipinos would want to help.

In September the FAAIE hosted the Merienda Cena, a Filipino-style tea party, to raise the funds needed to bring Caballero to Spokane. It was so successful Gavin said, “I had to turn people away!” They took in enough money to cover the cost of the trip and to buy the orthopedic shoes she would need following surgery.

Caballero arrived in Spokane on Nov. 14, and Dr. Scott examined her. He discovered she had developmental dysplasia of the hip. “Her hip socket didn’t form properly in early childhood,” Scott said. “Her leg was 2 inches shorter and rotated in an abnormal angle.”

Scott said the condition is fairly rare, and the surgery is quite challenging. However, he was pleased with the results. “It went fantastic,” he said. “Just as we had hoped.”

For him the decision to offer his services at no charge was a “no-brainer.” He said, “It’s nice to be able to contribute to the quality of someone’s life – it’s what we do.”

As Caballero recuperates in her cousin’s home, Nelson has found the change in her to be amazing. “The strain used to show on her face,” he said. “Now she’s more spontaneous. Even the pitch of her voice changed once she had hope.”

Much has altered in the last month for Caballero. Using a walker, she proudly demonstrated her stride for guests. She’s had many new experiences. The snow that blanketed the area was a revelation to her. “It’s cold here,” she said with a smile. But even more mystifying to her is the generosity of strangers. She asked her cousin, “How come they’re so nice here? How come they give so much?”

Later, Caballero wondered what would have happened if her cousin and Nelson hadn’t visited the Philippines in May. “I would have died, huh?” she asked. And then she paused for a moment, “But I’ve been praying to God that somebody would help me.”

Both Schmidt and Nelson sense the hand of the divine in Caballero’s situation. “I don’t believe any of this happened by accident,” said Nelson.

For Caballero the future is bright and finally pain-free. When asked what she planned to do when she returned to the Philippines she grinned broadly and said, “I will sell more flowers.”