Written By Femina Laya Canua, Writer, Operation Blessing Philippines
Energetic and playful, this sweet little boy loves coloring and drawing a lot. His big smile explained all the excitement he had when he received his new coloring book after his life-changing surgery.
Carl John Angub, 5, is shy at first but eventually, throughout the week of Tulong sa Kapwa Surgical Mission 2016, Operation Blessing got to know his story.
At the age of 3, Carl’s parents noticed the misalignment of his eyes. When they brought him to a clinic for an eye-check up, Carl was diagnosed of Strabismus or imbalance muscles of the eyeballs. Carl’s case is different from the other children’s case, which are usually horizontal. In his case, his eyes were crossed vertically.
On the first check-up, the doctor advised alternate eye-patching. But because of Carl’s irritation, the procedure was not successful and after a year, they came back to the doctor and were recommended for an eye surgery in Manila, which the parents cannot afford because of their very limited resources.
Carl’s 32-year old housekeeper mother, Brenda, did not stop to look for ways to correct his son’s eyes. She even wrote an e-mail to her cousin in the United States to seek for help. Her cousin, who works in New York, emailed one of the doctors from the Philippine-American Association of Connecticut (PAAC) to ask if there will be a mission work in the Philippines. On November 2015, Brenda’s cousin was told that there would be a “Tulong sa Kapwa” surgical mission in Cebu on March the following year. With hearts full of hope, they waited patiently for the update from her cousin about the coming mission. Months have passed but there was still no update.
While in school, he is sometimes called crossed-eye, according to his mother. She also said that the boy used to complain that his vision sometimes doubled vertically. However, they are not losing hope that one day Carl will have normal eyesight.

Cebu Surgical Mission patient Carl John poses with PAAC volunteer doctor Emily Ceisler after his life-changing surgery at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
On February this year, Carl’s mom Brenda received an unexpected call. It was a call from Operation Blessing telling her to bring her son, Carl, to Cebu for the Surgical Mission. Mommy Brenda did not know how she would react at that time. “It was worth the wait,” Carl’s mom only uttered.
On the 15th of March, Carl’s life was changed forever. He was operated on and he now has normal eyesight. His father, who is a sales personnel earning P268 (almost $6) a day and is in their home in Butuan City, cried after seeing his son’s post-operation pictures, according to Mommy Brenda.
Carl was very excited to go home to tell his sister about the things that happened to him in Cebu for two weeks.
Thank you so much for helping us bring joy and hope to Carl John and his family. Join us in transforming more lives! Call us at 477-7802 to 06 or like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/obphil to know more.