Establish a fund
I made up my mind to establish a fund. However, I was first worried whether the information media would pick it up. Fortunately, I had connections with people of information media through past treatment of lymphatic malformation of a baby from the Netherlands, I wrote a letter to newspapers. It was September 3, 1992.
A few days later, I received good news that a news writer was going to come to see me. However, I had to resolve a big problem - how should I deal with the privacy of Carlos’s family? This request of financial assistance was actually taken up by Dr. Morino of the Japanese Embassy in Mexico, not from Carlos’s family. I had to get permission from Carlos’s family.
The privacy problem got solved soon. A correspondent of the Mainichi Newspaper in Mexico called me with regard to the treatment. On September 12 the news on the Little Carlos was reported in an article with the title, “Please treat the Illness of My Son” in the Mainichi Newspaper in Tokyo. Let me refer to the part of the news article.
“A Mexican boy, one year of age and suffering from lymphatic malformation, to arrive in Japan in coming October with his family accompanied by his doctor in order to get treatment. They would like to receive a new method of therapy available only in Japan. The boy’s parents had to sell their car and house to raise money to come to Japan. They said ‘We believe Japan is the only solution to our son’s problem. We hope that this treatment will be available to other children suffering from the same disease.’ ”
Next problem is whether they would accept the financial assistance. We understand Mexicans are people of great self-respect. Even if funds of good will are offered, it would be impossible to force them to take it, especially if one had sold their house and car to raise funds. We went through much twists and turns before the news on the fund was released.
As a best and final solution, I asked Dr. Morino to directly take the story of the establishment of the fund to Carlos’s parents’ attention. Carlos’s parents were willing to take the funds, although they had heard nothing of the funds previously.