Awonke is an 11-year-old boy living with his family in the rural areas of the Free State. He suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart cannot pump blood effectively as the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber, is enlarged and weakened. He has been on a critical transplant list for a new heart for the past 3 years.
On two occasions his family received the life-changing call that a heart became available in Cape Town. On both of these occasions, Awonke missed the opportunity to a new life as his family was unable to make the trip to the hospital in the 8-hour window, as they could not scrape the money together for a flight and they did not have a reliable vehicle to drive there.
Awonke is weakening and is permanently in hospital, and the fear is that we will soon be too weak to endure a transplant. Dr Susan Vosloo referred the family to Wings & Wishes.
On the 23rd of August, we received the eagerly awaited call that a heart was available! Awonke was booked n the last flight from Bloemfontein to Cape Town, arriving at 19:30. The transplant was done at 23:00.
He is currently doing very well and he is off his ventilator. His doctor is very positive that he will be recovering soon.
