Survivor John has ‘heart’
A story about faith, hope and courage — and about the ultimate gift a person can give.
The name John Wilsenach will be familiar to many people on the South Coast as founder/owner of Dolphin Paving in Margate. Twenty-one years in the business, he befriends everyone he meets and deals with. Everybody’s friend, that’s John.
But there’s a hidden part to his history. When he had his first heart attack aged 53 years, he already reached an age that no other male in his family line had – no one made it past 50.
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Living in Southbroom with wife Mandi, he thought ‘this is it, I’m going to die’. He decides to move Mandi to a place she can manage so they get a flat in Manaba.
But he proves to be the great survivor. He continues running his business but, in the years that follow, he suffers eight heart attacks, has about 10 stents inserted and an ICD implanted.
He is told he isn’t a suitable candidate for a heart transplant – in fact, after the ICD is implanted, he’s told ‘there’s nothing more we can do for you’.
An implantable cardioverter-defibrilator (ICD) kicks in automatically when it detects life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia.
It once threw him right across the bathroom – he sustained cuts on his forehead and says it was the scariest thing ever.
Ironically, he outlives his first cardiologist and consults Dr David Gilmer, who declares John a suitable transplant candidate.
He goes on the waiting list, but at the age of nearly 70, his chances are slim. Someone younger will always be granted first opportunity.
But he believes and never gives up — something all people who know John know. His intense ‘gelowigheid’, as they say in Afrikaans – there’s no other word for it.
He never gives up believing God will provide a heart when the time is right.
John is introduced and befriends Sister Cindy Goldie, organ coordinator at Busamed Gateway Private Hospital, Umhlanga.
He phones his ‘mate’ every week. Can he eat this? Can he eat that? He doesn’t want to jeopardise his chances.
He has to watch his diet and weight. If he catches a cold and a heart is available, he could miss his chance.
On the waiting list for three years, he waits and appears to be at the end of the road.
Basically bedridden, he can just make it to the toilet and shuffle very slowly to the lounge.
His feet swell, but he keeps going. He insists on making the bed, a task that takes him forever. And he peels vegetables for Mandi.
Then the call – Mandi’s phone rings – they have a heart, come now! It’s 3am on Saturday morning, January 12.
For a moment John wavers. “Nou’s ek ’n bietjie bang.”
The donor is a woman in her early 40s who suffered a mammoth stroke.
Her liver will go to two people, her kidneys to another two and corneas to someone else.
It’s a critical time for Cindy. The first unit to respond to the news and get a team together can claim the heart.
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Robert Kleinloog is on his farm. She phones him and he can make it. Cindy gets the heart.
The whole link, the calls and timing is so tenuous, so critical.
The drama is captured by Via presenter Jan Groenewald — the preparations, the operation, the arrival of the organ.
As far as they know, John is the oldest heart transplant patient in KwaZulu-Natal, perhaps South Africa.
Three days later, John is able to phone Mandi himself. Please bring his reading glasses and Bible.
A week later, he looks … well … just like John. Sitting up eating.
“Joy,” he says, “this happened just in time. They said they wouldn’t have been able to send me back to Margate again.”
He will be in ICU for three weeks. It’s too risky to send him home two hours away.
But John’s thinking well beyond that. He wants to restart his business (which he sold three years ago) and play golf again.
If anything, this story is a lesson about the power of belief. And the importance of organ donation. Ask John Wilsenach.
The Organ Donor Foundation can be contacted at www.odf.org.za
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