“You know it’s amazing that they get pushed in and carried in with their head down but they get to leave with their head held high, knowing that there’s a God that loves them that has a plan for them because they matter and they’re special,” -Tim Tebow

Professional football and baseball player Tim Tebow shared how  a hospital in his namesake has provided healing and instilled hope in countless children born with treatable disabilities in Davao City.

Opened in 2015, the Tebow CURE Children’s Hospital established along the busy stretch of J.P. Laurel Avenue in Davao City has provided treatment to 8,000 children and adults born with treatable disabilities such as clubfoot, bowed legs, knock knees, brittle bone diseases, cleft lip, cleft palate, windswept knees, burn contractures and broken bones (neglected trauma).

“We are a small hospital but very, very busy. We service Region 11 but we also have children coming from all areas of the Philippines, and for the past 12 months we have performed over 1,871 surgical procedures,” said Peter Cowles, the executive director of the hospital.

The hospital is operated by CURE international, a Christian non-profit organization that operates a global network of children’s hospitals pairing world class surgical and spiritual care to serve children with treatable disabilities. The hospital is the only CURE medical facility in the country and in Asia and among the eight CURE hospitals in the world which are located in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to Cowles, the Tebow CURE Children’s Hospital once provided medical care for both children and adults. However, in 2021, its focus shifted solely to pediatric cases and individuals whose  disabilities began during their childhood years.

“It allowed us to focus specifically on children and not have adults and children in the same facility,” Cowles emphasized as he shared that the hospital has a long waiting list for treatments. 

Moreover, this hospital extends significant assistance not only to the patients but also to the families, alleviating the financial strain of treatments by ensuring a zero billing when they leave the facility.  He further mentioned that their aim is to assist families falling within the bottom 6% of the country's economic bracket who cannot pay for these treatments.

“So, there’s no counterpart on the part of the patient for the services that we provide and that includes transportation, housing, medicines, x-rays, surgeries, physical therapies, anything that we do in the hospital there’s no charge,” Cowles said.

Expenses in private hospitals to treat such disabilities are expensive. A Clubfoot procedure will cost around P150,000 while a simple cleft surgery is estimated at P80,000 and a complex surgery for cleft palate will run up to P600,000.

Cowles said the zero-billing is made possible through generous sponsors particularly the Tim Tebow Foundation who helped put up the hospital and also sponsors the treatments.