The earnest smile says it all. Lying flat on his bed at the company accommodation in Abu Hadriyah, Dammam, Randy Pepito Nacorda extended both his hands in a gesture of welcome to us. “I am okay sir. I am fortunate to be alive; I am lucky to have a caring employer,” he said when asked how he was coping with his current situation after the serious vehicular accident that nearly snapped his life. “I am now preparing myself to go home. I really wanted to be with my family so that I could move on with my life with them,” he said with a feeling of deep longing for his wife and three children. He said his employer has extended all support needed and required after the accident. “I am getting all the medical care, my daily needs are provided, and I continue to receive my SR800 monthly salary,” Nacorda said. He said his doctor will be the one who will decide when he is fit and ready to travel home in Novaliches, Quezon City in the Philippines. Nacorda, 34, a driver of a 10-wheeler cement mixer truck, met with an accident along the stretch of the Jubail highway after coming from the company plant in Abu Hadriyah on May 18 this year. He said the accident happened so fast. “There was big truck that came to my view; and all I could do was shout and then darkness,” he recalled. “I regained my full consciousness on June 5,” he said. “I cried for days after I woke up without my two legs. I am thankful to the counseling of my attending nurses and doctors and my friends. I have now accepted the fact that I am invalid; that I now have the limitation to earn a living to feed my family.” Nacorda was brought to Qatif Central Hospital in a critical condition. Both his legs were fractured, his right distal radius was fractured, there was crash injury in his left arm, head injuries, contusion on left lung, and had blunt trauma in the abdomen. To save his life, doctors had to amputate both his legs behind the knee. His medical report said Nacorda is now physically and mentally stable. His wounds are fast healing. He was discharged from the hospital on June 11. “I plan to go on with my life. Request for prosthesis was already made by the hospital, but maybe I will just request that the prosthesis be provided and made by the National Orthopedic Hospital in the Philippines where I could also undergo my rehabilitation programs upon my return,” he said. He said his wife, who is a household service worker in Hong Kong, plans to give up her job to devote herself looking after him. “Our plan is to establish a grocery store. I intend to seek the support of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in establishing a livelihood plan for my family. My wife and I are both overseas workers and I know there is a government reintegration program for workers like us,” he said. Nacorda, who arrived in the Kingdom this January to work as a driver, was employed in the Philippines as a liaison officer of an importing and manufacturing company. He said he decided to work in Saudi Arabia for better opportunities. He went to college in Southern Leyte in Southen Philippines, taking up computer education. Although he did not complete his computer education, he said his knowledge of computing will help in managing a business which he and his wife plan to establish. Nacorda is expected to receive a GOSI disability insurance payment. He will also get a lump sum disability payment from the Philippine government through OWWA. The Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Philippine Embassy, Eastern Province operation, will be preparing a referral plan that will cover his medical needs and reintegration upon his return to the Philippines. “I am thankful to God I am alive. My company supported me all the way through. I want to go home now so I can move on with my family,” he said, bidding goodbye to his visitors. __
