When the hospital administration told the parents of 14-year old Ilianov de León Albino that he needed an operation that would cost US$450,000, it was like a death sentence. The family didn’t have the money. But where there is a will there is a way, and they began a campaign to gather the money, turning it into a national crusade. Yesterday, the Committee for the Life of Ilianov de León Albino announced that RD$7 million has been collected. The money is only RD$200,000 or US$12,500 short of the US$7.2 million (US$450,000) needed to try and save the life of the 14-year old interned in New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Of the total, RD$1.6 million was contributed by a Dominican businessman. The campaign has reached out to Dominicans on city streets, supermarkets and malls, and throughout the school system.
