Andrea del Rosario blamed self over child’s rare disease

Andrea del Rosario and her daughter Bea. Image: screengrab from YouTube/Karen Davila; Instagram/@andreadelrosario_official

Andrea del Rosario admitted she once blamed herself for her daughter Bea’s rare congenital disease, with the actress recalling how she even asked God if it was her “karma.”

The Viva Hot Babes member spoke about her child’s condition in an interview with broadcaster Karen Davila, as seen on the latter’s YouTube channel last Thursday, Sept. 5.

“[Bea] was born with this rare congenital disease called jejunal atresia. Nalaman ko [‘yun] nung nasa loob siya,” Del Rosario said, referring to her pregnancy.

Jejunal atresia is a “rare type of obstruction of the small bowel affecting newborns,” as per National Organization for Rare Disorders. Those who are diagnosed with this “are born with a complete mechanical obstruction of the proximal small intestine.”

“In layman’s terms, buhol-buhol ang bituka niya. They had to cut a big portion of it and she was left with a very short gut that’s why she was also diagnosed with short gut syndrome,” the actress continued.

Amid the difficulties she was facing at the time, Del Rosario—who even took a crash course in nursing to take care of her child—said she came to a point when she regarded her and her daughter’s circumstances as God’s way of punishing her.

“I asked myself, ‘Lord ano ba ‘to? Na-karma ba ako? Is this something that you are doing to punish me?'” she stated. “So I had all these questions. I was blaming myself. As a mother, you can’t helped but blame yourself. ‘Where did I go wrong?'”

“Mahirap kasi hindi mo alam kung one day babalik ba ‘to? Is this a recurring thing?” she continued, referring to Bea’s condition. “For instance, just last January, we had a major surgery again. They found something—’yung nutrition niya kind of affected. Lifetime challenge.”

Despite this, Del Rosario found a silver lining in their situation—Bea’s maturity.

“Tinanong ko siya, ‘Bea what did you learn from that surgery we had this January?’ [She said,] ‘You know mom, there’s this Bible verse that kept me going. Roman 8:18, ‘The pain you are feeling is nothing compared to the joy that is yet to come,'” Del Rosario recounted.

Del Rosario further shared that Bea already underwent more than 10 surgeries, and that the one she had in January was comparable to a C-section surgery.

Del Rosario gave birth to Bea in 2010. When asked about the child’s father in the interview, the actress said “he’s around” but that she does not want to talk about him.