Brother’s mysterious heart failure

Everything started a few days before his 18th birthday. He was busy with the schools grade 8 concert when he noticed his heart beating strange. He said it felt like a cramp on the left side of his chest. He didn't make anything of it at the time...

He returned for the final dance at the concert. On stage he felt that he was out of breath. He phoned my parents to come pick him up. They went home and he threw up the entire night. The next day my father took him to a clinic and they told him that he might have a stomach bug. They gave him meds for it and sent him home.

He continued to feel ill for a couple of days. My father took my brother to a different doctor after seeing no change to see why he isn't feeling better. The doctor took his heart rate and saw that his resting heart rate was 122 bpm and out of rhythm. He immediately asked for an ambulance to take him to hospital.

They took him to the Bay Hospital were they stabilized him. They gave him an injection to calm his heart but that didn't help. They decided to shock his heart back into rhythm. Afterwards they placed him over to a public hospital, Ngwelezane. He stayed there for a few weeks where they did blood tests etc. They sent him to Albert Luthuli hospital where they took an MRI to get a better overview of his heart.

The MRI and further tests showed that his liver had a bacterial infection and his heart was enlarged with an ejection factor 40-45%.

In and out of Ngwelezane hospital he went over the course of a year and a half.

My mother has an illness where she doesn't have balance, forgets a lot, and throws up because of bad migraines. So she is unfit to work. My father was retrenched a year before my mother's illness happened. He then started a cater hire company which he had to sell because of restrictions in the neighborhood that prevents you from doing such business from your home. This was the only way for them to have survived. They do not have medical aid. Currently my father does small jobs just to pay the bills.

I am currently at the age of 25. I am helping out my parents where I can. My fiancé and I decided to get my brother medical aid which took a while to finalize because of the unknown factor and his condition. November 2020 he got Discovery medical aid. The plan is the Essential Saver costing around R3300. He has a waiting period of 12 months before he can be immitted to hospital for treatment.

In April 2021 my parents and brother decided to come visit us in Cape Town. His abdomen was swollen because his liver doesn't get enough blood flow and he started to feel that his heart is not beating as it should be. I told them to go see a specialist for another opinion. We made use of his savings to pay for the consultation.

The doctor gave us bad news and told us that his ejection factor has decreased to 25-30%. She asked us to book him in to Tygerberg hospital. He is currently admitted but with the waiting period of his medical aid they don't want to pay for anything.

I will need to cover his bills as my parents are already relying on me.

He is 20 years old, doesn't drink alcohol or energy drinks, he doesn't smoke or use drugs. He is well mannered always placing others before himself. With everything that is happening in my parents lives and his, he is probably the most positive person ever. He has a will to survive.

I am asking for the amount specified as this will cover outstanding bills my parents have for the ambulance and stabilization at Richards Bay hospital and for the current time he is at Tygerberg hospital (we haven't received those bills yet but that will have rates for 3 days in hospital with an MRI scan, scope and shock to get his heart back in rhythm).

Any funds that goes towards this cause will be used for those bills. if it isn't enough then I will try to take out a loan to cover the rest. If more is donated then the rest will be used for future bills till his medical aid kicks in later this year.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to his story.

No matter the amount or if you are only able to pray for him.

We thank you for your support.