Nurse Ma-An spilled the tea on Liza's wild condition: she was supposed to be conjoined twins with Leia. Like, a super rare birth defect where Leia's supposed to absorb her in the womb. Usually happens with identical twins, but this was a freaky case with fraternal twins. That's why Liza ended up with all these heart, lung, liver, and spleen issues. She's got meds for days just to keep her organs from going kaput.
No wonder she was always benched during PE, only doing the light stuff.
Both of their parents are chilling in Australia now, and they took Liza over first for treatments. Leia stayed back in the Philippines 'cause she's got some sweet career prospects after graduation.
Nurse Ma-An and I had this deep chat when Liza and I ditched class to visit her grandma's grave. Liza did this cemetery pilgrimage weekly, 'cause her grandma was like her mom since her parents were always working in Australia.
As Liza grew, her organs kept growing too. Like, if her heart had a hole, the hole got bigger. It got to a point where treatments weren't cutting it. Her organs started failing, she got hooked on a ventilator, went into a coma for days, and her parents finally decided to let her go. They couldn't bear seeing her all tubed up anymore; she even had tubes for peeing and pooping. It was brutal, man. The machine was the only thing keeping her alive.
Life is such a jerk. That's all I could say to Nurse. Why do the good ones get snatched away so soon? Nurse hit me with, "God doesn't want perfect people to mess up." That kinda stuck with me. Now I believe Liza was perfect. It sucks she's gone, but at least I got to be a part of her life.