As of February 14, 2019:

Thank you everyone for your generous contributions for this appeal. Your contributions have assisted us to raise the funds we needed to pay for the medical bills at NUH.

We will keep this fundraising appeal open till Feb 28th in case anyone wishes to still make a contribution. Any additional contributions that we now receive will be used towards the ongoing expenses that is needed for medicines, rehabilitation and hospital follow-ups that is required.

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My story begins on 26th June 2018 after a long day at work, where I was serving notice as I had resigned, heading back home with Mamak mee goreng for dinner from the mamak around the corner in Joo Chiat and climbing up the four floors to home.  While watching TV, I began feeling rather queasy and something wasn’t right. So, I quickly called my cousin Sasha who immediately came by with a bowl of soup. I remember stumbling down the stairs with Sasha and getting a taxi to the nearest hospital in the area.  I remember waiting in the hall whilst Sasha registered me and after that, it goes all blank. The only memory I have after that starts around mid-September 2018.

I’ve known Brian for 8 years. So, when I heard Brian was in the hospital because of a heart problem, I was stunned. He was only in his mid-30s, a Sales Manager with no known health issues, didn’t smoke and exercised regularly. Brian and I also volunteer in church. The first 2 visits, Brian looked fine - until the doctors told him he needed open heart surgery to replace a leaky valve. The next thing we knew, things quickly took a turn for the worse. Over the next few months, my friend’s weakened heart stopped, and his other organs rapidly followed. His kidneys, lungs, and liver failed.  And so, began the long journey of late nights up waiting for any news of Brian in the WhatsApp group chat his brother had set up, bleak days of praying and coping with the constant emotional turmoil, swinging between hope and despair. The visits were the most painful. I visited an alien Brian I didn’t recognize. Brian’s muscles had wasted so much his legs and arms were the size of a child’s. He had reduced to bones sticking out from the areas where I could see his flesh. Always so particular about his appearance, his gaunt face was overgrown with a beard and wild hair.  But the tubes - I saw what seemed like a dozen tubes everywhere - they were coming out of the chest, his nose, his throat, his hand…. Like many others, I broke down and sobbed as he laid there unconscious with machines breathing for him and pumping his organs for him. And I could do nothing. Gradually, very slowly, Brian pulled through the surgeries, infections and many days in the Intensive Care Unit. His consciousness when awake struggled to come to the surface. He seemed to be aware and he indicated his awareness with the barest of nods, but Brian will tell you he remembers none of that. But it was a miracle that he pulled through in the end. Eventually, his organs also regained their function as well as his motor functions.

-        Michelle (friend of Brian) 

This leads me to my current state, which I have been in since late June till the 3rd December 2018 which is a total of 160 days of hospitalization in three Hospitals, all in Singapore. I’m slowly gaining back my strength, having to learn to walk all over again through daily rehabilitation while trying to make sense of what happened to me during the months, I have a blank in my head. My heart ejection fraction was at 15% (normal ejection fraction is 60%) when I was discharged from the hospital and the Doctors estimate that it can take another 6-12 months of physiotherapy and healing to recuperate to a level where I’m independent again. All in all, this is what I’ve been through;

• Aortic valve damage which resulted in Aortic regurgitation (leaking valve)
• Infections that affected and severely damaged my heart and lungs
• several trips into OT, which included 2 open heart surgeries. The first was to replace the Aortic valve, inspect the Mitral valve and stitch the cardiac shunt.
• several surgical complications after open heart surgery
• traumatic brain injury caused by bleeding in the brain after the 2 collapses and due to the use of the VAD machine following the open-heart surgery.
• severe liver disease
• irregular heart rhythm, medically known as Atrial fibrillation
• incontinence-associated dermatitis, which is due to the inability to control the release of urine or stool.
• Prolonged intubation and insertion of a tracheotomy
• Pneumonia, which was acquired in the hospital after a prolonged stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
• Abrupt loss of kidney function which required the use of a dialysis machine for a prolonged period.