Email sent december 9th 2008:

Collection for Putu                                   

Putu Sumengadeg (28) is sick and has been staying at Pantai Mas for about six months now. We would like to tell his story and ask for your help.

Putu used to work for the traffic police as a driver. He and his wife Luh Supartini (26) have a little daughter, Putu Linda Wati, who is 2½ years old. They live in the village Tukadmungge, a few km from Pantai Mas.

Because he had a swollen hip, Putu had two operations in 2007. The operation wound has unfortunately become infected, probably with a bacteria from the hospital. Tests show it is ‘staphylococcus epidermidis'.

Putu had been lying in the hospital in Denpasar (on the other side of Bali) for a month when we first met him there. He was in a very bad state: skin and bones, the wound was black and he had really already given up.

He came to Pantai Mas to recover. Treatment with vitamins and oligotherapy, and eating better, gradually helped him get a bit stronger. The wound was cleaned out daily, by sitting in a bath with washing powder. After that, treatment with antibiotics started.

At a certain point Putu was a lot better, he could already walk with crutches and he went home. Very happy he was better (he hadn't been outside for 1½ year), he went too fast and the infection sadly enough flared up again. At the beginning of October this year he came back to Pantai Mas after having been home for three days.

The antibiotics didn't really help any more, the bacteria has probably mutated and became resitant to most antibiotics. Putu has a lot of pain. He is really fighting for his life, for a long time now. At the moment he is not getting worse, but also not getting better, because the infection continues.

The financial situation for the family is very hard. Putu recieves a small payment from his employer, the police, but this isn't enough by far. Luh looks after her husband at Pantai Mas she looks after their daugther, so she cannot look for a paid job right now. The operations, hospitals and medicines have already cost the family a lot more than they can afford. For staying at Pantai Mas they don't have to pay and also the vitamins, oligos and all laboratorium tests have been payed for them by the Pantai Mas family.   

Dokter Widi, a local doctor who by now assists Putu free of charge, has advised him to have another operation, by a specialist in the hospital in Tabanan, to clean the wound thoroughly from the source (the doctor suspects the infection goes all the way down to the bone).

Because the family cannot pay for the operation we are making this collection. The operation will cost about € 1700,- all together.

We would like to ask you for a financial contribution to help give Putu this chance. At the moment of writing this we have already collected € 150,-. Each gift is very welcome.

Thank you very much!

On behalf of Putu, Luh and family.

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E-mail sent on March 9th 2009:

Dear people,

We would like to inform you about the welfare of Putu, for whom we made a collection a while ago.

Putu is doing well! So well even that he has gone home a couple of weeks ago. The infection is almost completely gone. We have managed to conquer the different mutations of the bacteria with antibiotics and several natural remedies. For the last remainder Putu still gets antibiotics. He is getting stronger and livelier every day.

Because of this favourable development in his healing process the Pantai Mas house doctor, doctor I Made Widiadnyana (doc Widi), has advised Putu not to undergo another operation, as was the plan earlier. Everyone is very happy about this, because the operation also brought extra risks and if it's not necessary it is of course always better not to operate.

We have the feeling that just knowing that a collection was being held and that there are people on the other side of the world who wanted to help him, gave Putu's healing proces an extra boost.

During his taking leave from Pantai Mas it was heart-warming to see Putu's daughter Linda dancing and jumping up and down out of joy that her father was fnally coming home. She had hardly known that, her father healthy and at home!

Putu has left Pantai Mas, but he regularly comes by in the evening for some fishing at Pantai Mas. In the end, when he was already more fit and could walk with the help of crutches, fishing was his favourite activity at Pantai Mas. And the people here have become like family, so he also comes for the good company.

Thanks to the generous gifts of many relatives and friends, known and also unknown, a total of almost € 1500 has been collected for Putu. An amazingly large sum!

Even though the opertion is not necessary any more, Putu and his family can use the money very well. To pay all the bills from the hospital, doctors and medicines during the past two years, Putu had contracted a large loan at the bank, a debt he would otherwise have been tied to for the rest of his life. Now he can pay off a large part of the loan and really begin his ‘new life'.

On behalf of Putu and his family we would like to thank everyone very very heartily for all the support and donations!

Warm regards,

the Pantai Mas family

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