Cebu doctor waives fees for ‘favorite teacher’

MANILA, Philippines – It was an early Christmas gift – an unexpected one at that.

On December 7, Virginia Roble, a high school teacher in Cebu, broke her left arm and needed surgery at Perpetual Succour Hospital.

When it came to pay her hospital bills, Roble received a heartwarming surprise – her doctor Dr Dilbert Monicit, a former student of hers, waived his professional fee for the surgery. 

In a handwritten note, Monicit said the professional fee was already paid 22 years ago. He also called Roble his “favorite teacher.”

As a way of thanksgiving, Roble posted the note on her Facebook account with the caption “Just checked out of Perpetual Succour Hospital. I got this note from the nurses’ station. Thank you for the early Christmas gift, Dr Dilbert Monicit. Thank you for being there.”

“It really made me teary eyed when I read it. I thought it was for my medication because it was on a prescription paper,” Roble commented.

The post made rounds on social media, getting about 10,000 reactions and more than 600 shares as of this writing. 

//

Love in any language

The story bears striking similarities to a Thai commercial released in 2013.

In the commercial, a poor young boy is scolded for stealing medicines meant for his sick mother. A shop owner sees the boy and intervenes by paying for the medicine and giving the boy vegetable soup for his mother. 

Thirty years later, the shop owner falls sick and his daughter has no means to pay for his bills. The doctor intervenes and pays for all the bills, revealing to the daughter that he was that young boy her father helped many years ago. 

Whether in real life or reel life, heartwarming stories such as these are chicken soup for the soul. – with report from Berna Adame/Rappler.com