Filipinos are known to be loving, caring, and respectful to elders. However, not everyone has the knowledge and patience in understanding them. In fact, the society has stigmatized elders – who suffer from kidney, bladder or prostate problems – wearing catheters, disgusting. In fact, my mother got humiliated and ridiculed for wearing one, too. As a result, apart from the physical pain, she also suffered social and emotional problems.
What is catheter used for?
The usage of a catheter is broad. So, a quick online research and for the benefit of everyone, catheters are used for the following reasons:
- used for draining a person’s bladder
- ordered by a physician for many different medical purposes
- may be used include when a person is unable to urinate on their own
- has little control over urination, patients that are hospitalized for certain surgeries
- patients that are in a coma, patients that are sedated for long periods of time, or patients that have urinary or kidney health issues (Source)
Fortunately, these awesome Filipino designers created an amazing masterpiece: “On The Go Pants” for elders wearing catheters.
In the video, an art director’s 82-year old father shares his story on how people reacted or humiliated him every time they saw him with the drainage bag. He asked: “wala bang paraan na nakatago ito [catheter]?” (Is there a way to hide this?)
As luck would have it, his son, Mon Pineda, an art director and his colleagues, Noel Orosa, and fashion designers James Reyes, and Dennis Lustico, who trained as a nurse, thought of designing a life-changing solution for elders wearing catheters.
According to Interaksyon.com, each of them contributed in this amazing solution. It was mentioned in the article as well, how these four combined their expertise: Mon conceptualized a messenger bag that could carry the drainage bags; Noel also thought of creating cargo pants with large pockets that could hold the catheters; while James did the initial sketches; and Dennis added zippers on the pocket to allow the wearer to check if the bag is already full or not.
FWatch the inspiring video and hopefully, this will serve as an eye-opener to everyone to STOP humiliating our beloved elders wearing catheters.
Source: Grey 4 Good
These brilliant minds presented their revolutionary design, to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, which they now recommend to their patients.
This goes to show that our fashion designers are truly passionate about their craft.
For more information on where to get this, you may email Dennis Lustico at d_lustico@yahoo.com or call/text Alyssa Lustico at 0926-7560494 or (02) 8460915.
What can you say about this creative and marvelous design? Share your thoughts below!
