Donated Burn Unit unveiled in Marikina City hospital

After learning the lack of burn units in state-run hospitals in the country, the Rotary Club of Joam, South Korea bankrolled the Burn Unit at Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center (ARMMC) in Marikina City, which was innaugurated yesterday.

Marikina Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz said that the Burn Unit at ARMMC will cater to patients not only from Marikina but neighbouring towns and cities as well.

“The newly-built Burn Unit from the Rotary Club of Joam will also accommodate neighboring towns and cities like Rizal. Towns and cities in the eastern part of the metropolis may come here to seek professional care,” he said during the opening of the burn unit.

The vice mayor and Josefino ‘Jessie’ Cruz, president of the Marikina Rotary Club, went to Korea last year to talk the Rotary Club of Joam about the project.

Cadiz said that the Rotary Club of Joam was hailed as the best Rotary Club in South Korea for its outstanding works.

Lee Bong Sik, president of Rotary Club of Joam, said that when they went to ARMMC last year, he saw skin-burnt patients who were just lying on the hall way because of the absence of a burn unit.

“I pitied the situation of patients. We researched and learned that there is a lack of burn units in the Philippines,” he said in Korean.

“The vice mayor of Marikina told us that there is less than 50 burn units here — in the Philippines.”

The burn unit has eight beds and has well-trained staff and doctors.

Lee asked the doctors to take good care of patients, saying they have already provided for the facility.

“To the doctors, please take good care of the patients. Use the facility well,” he said.

The Rotary Club of Joam promised to support the facility for three more years.

“We will not abandon the work. We will continously help the burn unit to grow,” Lee said.