I was informed minutes ago that my brother in-law just died.

Surrounded by doctors and nurses, in the hospital, that would do nothing to help him.

He had been in the hospital for a few days and as of today started having trouble breathing. The doctors told his wife (my sister in-law) that he needed to be put on oxygen immediately. They also told her that they would not put him on oxygen until she bought and paid for it. She could not afford it!

Another sister in-law of mine that has been staying at my house woke my wife up this morning to tell her the situation and beg the two of us for money on behalf of him. My wife told me what was going on and of course I told her we would do everything we could to help.

Unfortunately we are also broke, several months past due on rent, 6 months past due on some bills, it's a bit embarrassing to say the least, but we've always managed to get by. We do have more liquid funds available to us however and so although we can not afford, we agreed to give them as much money as we possibly could, regardless of putting us further in debt, in order to cover the Oxygen and medicine he needed, as well as a bed in the hospital.

My wife went to the ATM within 20 minutes of waking up, it all went by fairly quickly, to withdraw the money we would be giving for my brother in-law Othan's needs. She was very fast, and upon returning home the other sister in-law took the money and headed off to the hospital to deliver the money.

She was too late.

Before she even made it to the hospital, due to traffic it took a while, Othan was dead. The doctors having let it happen.

If they would have treated him, put him on oxygen, and allowed payment upon being discharged, or even after his life was no longer in immediate danger, he would still be here with us. They did not even give him a bed! HE DIED SITTING IN A WHEELCHAIR!

He left behind a wife, and 2 young children that were not even allowed to visit him in the hospital due to restrictions. His children, my niece and nephew, are ages 15, and 7.

He was only 37 years old, and suffocated to death in the hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses, that would do nothing to help him because he did not have the money on hand to pay for his treatment.

We are now faced with the costs of the funeral arrangements, as well as finding a way to help his wife, and children financially in order to help them keep moving forward in their lives, with food in their mouthes a roof over their head, and an education.

I Plea to the Steemit Community for Help!

I am not one to ask for help typically, or even make people aware of personal issues; but I'm afraid in this instance I must swallow my pride and at the very least inform you all and ask for any help that can be provided. Be that donations, an upvote, a resteem, or even your prayers.

As many of you are aware. My wife @haleyaerith and I are a part of #teamphilippines @teamphilippines which is a community here in Steemit for Filipinos, and those living in the Philippines. The goal of this community is to help spread Steemit throughout the Philippines and to help people to leverage it to reduce poverty and increase education within the country.

It's an unfortunate truth that this tragedy of my brother in-law dying like he did, is not a rare occurrence in the Philippines. Hopefully with the help of all of you amazing people on Steemit, and the #teamphilippines @teamphillipines community, we can help make this more rare, or even eradicate it all together. Unfortunately this tragedy did happen, but hopefully with time and your support, we can prevent it from happening to others.

Donations

If you would like to donate Ethereum or Bitcoin to help us with funeral expenses for Othan and a bit of financial stability, or even a boost for his widow and children, please use the following address's. For Steem please send it direct to my account.

Ethereum: 0x74EF518eF5450Bb0c9191b42678D17549C11B8fF
Bitcoin: 1DkddNuFCWYNGJPULGLLyUaowEGpkcPSZw

If you would like to also help support #teamphilippines @teamphilippines, please send any donations or delegation directly to @teamphilippines.

I thank you all for your compassion, upvotes, resteems, and prayers in advance. Thank you.

Some people have asked for proof that this is legitimate etc.

I understand that in a world full of fraud, sometimes it makes the truth less believable based on previous experiences. A few people have therefor asked for proof to make sure that this is all true and not some ploy. See below images i gathered yesterday:

I have pictures of all the paperwork as well if necessary, but I figured this is probably good enough for most people.