A man who wouldn’t bid goodbye
Jul 31, 2006
He is known for his simplicity. He is popular even without trying. He makes solid convictions; he could oppose a whole nation as long as he stands by the truth. He is gentle yet strong, balance and firm. For more than half a decade he served the Filipinos as a worker of God. He has helped keep our religious foundations steady amidst years of political instability and social turmoil. All these he did with love, sincerity and compassion.
(Manila Standard Today, July 15 - 16, 2006) Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, now the most senior active prelate in the Philippines, is an icon to many Filipinos. His witty and fun-loving nature endeared him to people. The people closest to him would reveal the Cardinal’s one weakness—food. “Mahilig talaga siyang kumain, kahit anong ihain mo kakainin niya, di ka mapapahiya sa kanya,” a friend shares about him.
Cardinal Vidal’s graciousness to his hosts has taken its toll on him. In 1987, he was diagnosed with coronary artery disease, considered the most common type of heart disease. Excess fats and cholesterol buildup formed in his coronary arteries and blocked the pathway of oxygen-rich blood to his heart, causing him to frequently experience extreme pain in the chest.
At first, Cardinal Vidal, didn’t know what to do. He felt helpless, not because he was afraid to die but because he deemed there are still a lot of things that he needed to do for his people. He read a lot about CAD and found out that it can be treated. He was presented with two options: heart bypass or angioplasty. The cardinal opted to undergo the less invasive angioplasty on the same year. He was doing well for a couple of years but because angioplasty was still making use of bare stents, there was a recurrence of his blockage. His chest pains came back and his condition got worse in 1995. “I experienced difficulty in breathing,” the cardinal recounts. It was there that he underwent quintriple bypass.
For some time, the cardinal recovered fully and went back to his many pastoral activities. In 2004, however, it was determined that he needed a new procedure. The cardinal suffered restenosis or renarrowing of the artery. Restenosis happens when the artery wall forms keloid-like scars as it tries to heal itself after getting stretched in an angioplasty. The scar will proliferate until it clogs the artery again.
Fortunately, the latest development in treating CAD was already introduced in the Philippines that year. The Sirolimus-Eluting Stent from Johnson & Johnson, often described as the turning point in interventional cardiology, was especially developed to address the problem of restenosis. On Nov. 30, 2004, Cardinal Vidal underwent coronary stenting using Sirolimus-eluting stents.
The stent, a tiny cylindrical wire mesh, was mounted on a small inflatable balloon and inserted in the Cardinal’s blocked artery through a tiny incision on his limb. The balloon when inflated will expand the stent and will press the fatty deposits (plaques) to the artery wall, leaving a wider opening to facilitate regular blood flow. The stent will be left in place to hold the artery open. The drug Sirolimus, incorporated in the polymer coating of the stent will be eluted in about 30 days to inhibit the growth of scars along the artery wall and prevent restenosis. The procedure took less than one hour, and being minimally invasive, Cardinal Vidal was released from the hospital the following day.
After his successful procedure, Cardinal Vidal was very thankful that he could go back to his sworn duty again. “The procedure has proven to be a savior. Coronary stenting provided me with something special, which is a new lease in my life. And with that I promise the people of Cebu to serve them well,” the cardinal said.
Much as he wanted to continue his service to the Cebuanos, on Feb. 6, his 75th birthday, Cardinal Vidal has already reached his mandatory retirement age. Merely three days after his birthday, the cardinal submitted his retirement paper to the Vatican, giving himself to the full disposition of the Holy Father. Good thing, the Pope denied his resignation.
Cardinal Vidal’s birthday wish was to see all Filipinos unite and hand in hand work toward a better Philippines. For almost two decades, he fought his heart disease in silence, and though alone, he was able to triumph over it. This is a clear indication of how much he wanted to stay with us, share our pain and suffering, until we are able to stand again and learn from our mistakes.
A man who wouldn’t bid goodbye