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Was there something missing in Luisa Ticzon’s successful formula of youthful vigor and idealism, energy and brains, openness and creativity? Just that one thing she finally found: The number to God’s hotline.

Luisa had given life to Lingkod E.R., started as an advocacy. When Luisa brought the God factor into the program, she not only felt the sometimes heavy burden of keeping Lingkod E.R. alive lighten, she found her spiritual center and obtained a support base that would ensure the continuity of her emergency room assistance program that has already saved many lives.

Lingkod E.R. is a non-stock, non-profit organization engaged in humanitarian and charitable activities to support patients in need in the emergency rooms of adopted Philippine hospitals. It is run mainly by college, medical and dental patients led by Luisa. The program’s motto: "Use your life to save other lives." It now has 2,000 volunteer members.

The Lingkod E.R. program began in 1997, when Luisa was a pre-med student doing volunteer work at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). There, in the country’s largest general hospital, a 21-year-old Luisa saw how poverty could literally kill a patient: Indigent patients would often go without food to be able to afford the prescribed medication, thus weakening their bodies so the drugs could not be as effective. Or they would die because the cost of renting life-saving emergency equipment, like respirators and incubators, was beyond their meager means.

Luisa notes, however, that E.R. doctors try their best to save lives, even under most difficult circumstances. "You will see how Filipino doctors are very, very resourceful: like, if they don’t have (one thing), how will they improvise? They have to save a person’s life," she notes.

The work of Lingkod E.R. has been hailed, featured on television and in newspapers and magazines. Luisa’s advocacy and leadership was featured in Reader’s Digest’s "Heroes for Today" section in May, 1998.

Luisa has even been hailed as MTV Asia’s Superhero of Asia and Lingkod E.R. received a corresponding $5,000 donation from the music video channel.

Luisa herself has received several awards for her work with Lingkod E.R., but bringing God into the picture is what "brought it all together," she says.

Starweek interviewed Luisa, who is now preparing for the medical board exams next August, at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, where she has put up another nerve center for Lingkod E.R. Her manner is charming, convincing, and yet she has retained the openness and freshness of her youth.

Lingkod E.R. had put up provincial operations in strategic government hospital emergency rooms in Cebu, Bacolod and other parts of the country, with the aim of installing a Lingkod E.R. chapter in every government hospital and charity hospital nationwide.

The work of Lingkod E.R. is far from over, and Luisa is still working as diligently at her advocacy as she did at the start, this time concentrating on setting up the Lingkod E.R. Foundation.

But her original core of volunteers has moved on with the demands of life, like board exams, residency and specialization training, and families of their own. How would she continue with the work? Luisa turned to God.

Just when the momentum of the Lingkod E.R. program seemed to be winding down Luisa sought "the strength of something bigger than us" by seeking God and making the Almighty an integral part of Lingkod E.R.’s locus.

Dr. Mark Platon, one of Lingkod E.R.’s pioneers, said that, with God, "work becomes easy and you realize you are just a tool... you are your brother’s keeper."

Luisa, whose social awareness first developed when she was a student at the Assumption School in Antipolo and later when she did triage duty at PGH, puts her task simply: "I need to do what the Lord expects me to do. I needed to add a spiritual dimension to Lingkod E.R."

Enter plastic surgeon Oscar Tagulinao and cardiac surgeon Jose Yamamoto, active members of the Couples for Christ (CFC) movement.

These 40-something surgeons provide more than just a pleasant contrast to Luisa’s youthful exuberance and gung-ho drive to make a difference. They also serve as her "gurus" and advisers.

Yamamoto heads the CFC Health Ministry that brings much needed medical aid–in the form of doctors, surgery, medical supplies and medicines–to far-flung areas of the Philippines and delivers God’s mercy and healing free of charge to the poorest of patients.

The cardiac surgeon also encourages the participation of the youth, particularly members of the Youth For Christ satellite of CFC. "If all the youth will have that idea, we will not fight it. It will be good for us in the long run."

Like the proverbial mustard seed, Lingkod E.R. started small. When a little orphan girl who had been hit by a jeepney was brought to the PGH emergency room by her siblings in a rickety pushcart, Luisa was on triage duty and she was taken aback at the sight of the children seeking treatment for their sister. "I expected an ambulance," Luisa said, "not the kariton these kids used."

The PGH emergency room staff did treat the little girl and gave her siblings a prescription for medication the patient needed. "But they told me they did not know how to read and that they hadn’t even eaten yet because they had no money for food. They asked me how they would buy the medicine their sister needed."

This spurred Luisa to begin unofficially assisting indigent patients who are brought to the emergency room, in the hopes that they, though poor, will be snatched back from Death’s grim maw.

But even mercy has a price, and that price, though small to those who have abundance, may be too steep for those who can barely get through the day.

Luisa relates the story of a grandmother who had walked into the UST Hospital emergency room, asking to be nebulized for asthma. The grandmother left home despite her asthma attack because her orphan grandchild was sick and she was going to do laundry to raise money for the child’s medicine. Luisa brought the woman into the emergency room for treatment, "but the lola resisted. She said she could not afford to pay the hospital and needed a lot of convincing before she agreed to enter the emergency room." It turned out the grandmother had a virulent lung infection that could literally have been the death of her.

The woman was given immediate medical treatment and medicine, which were paid for by Lingkod E.R. "That is the need we must fill–people like this grandmother often resist receiving much-needed medical treatment because they cannot afford it. We want to help them afford it when they need it."

Fortunately, support for Lingkod E.R. is strong. Even young school-children who learned of Lingkod E.R. through the media have initiated fund drives for the program.

"One time," Luisa says, "students of the Assumption came to us with P100,000 they had gathered for the Lingkod E.R. program." The money those children collected went to buying new equipment for the PGH emergency room and paying the difference between life and death for indigent patients.

Luisa never puts the donations she gets in the bank. "I spend the money right away because it is needed there. I also keep receipts and do a full accounting of everything we spend and list down each patient who benefited from the donations, as well as how much was spent on these patients," Luisa says. "That way, the donors will know where their money is going."

Lingkod E.R. volunteers, once mainly taken from the ranks of medical students and those studying related fields, now come from the different faculties of UST, as well as other schools. "We have students from the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters majoring in journalism, broadcast and marketing who are helping us put together fund-raising campaigns and methods of marketing Lingkod E.R. to generate cash for the program," Luisa says with a broad smile.

The need for Lingkod E.R. volunteers has not subsided – rather, it has increased. "We need volunteers, and all volunteers are welcome, even those who are not doctors or medical practitioners. We need donations of money and equipment. We need helping hands. We need donations of time and effort."

Besides patient assistance, Lingkod E.R. also offers a volunteer program, awareness campaigns, medical and surgical missions and emergency training seminars.

It is a celebration of the best in the human spirit, as is seen in times of severe trial. "The strength of the human heart to withstand tragedy is indeed amazing, especially when one knows he is not alone" is written in the Lingkod E.R. brochure, a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit as seen in both the recipient and the giver of life-saving assistance.

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Would you use your life to save other lives? Lingkod E.R.’s main office is at the UST Hospital Clinical Division, Emergency Room, Sampaloc Manila. Those who wish to donate their time or resources may call tel. 781-4475 or email [email protected] and [email protected].