Ronnie’s Story

My son Ronnie was born on November 15, 1968.

He attended St Mary's School, Nairobi, from 1975 to 1985, where he completed his 'O Levels'. In 1986, he transitioned to Dollar Academy, Scotland and graduated in 1989 after completing his 'A Levels'. In 1989, he went on to the University of Hull, UK, where he graduated with a BSc. Economics & Accounting.

He has worked in finance for most of his professional career with various local, national and international firms. He is currently with Ronami Holdings Ltd, as a Senior Consultant.

In his youth, Ronnie was a very keen rugby player. He played first team rugby at all levels for St Mary's School and for Dollar Academy during his senior years. He was one of the founding members for StanChart RFC, Nairobi, in the early '90s.

 

On November 15, 2017, Ronnie went out with his friends to celebrate his 50th birthday. The next day, he communicated with family and friends and told them that he was just at home recuperating from the excursions of the previous night.

The evening of November 16, as he was trying to change a light bulb, he suffered an Ischemic Stroke and collapsed to the ground. At this point he was alone at his residence and nobody was aware of what had just happened to him.

As he had spoken to family and friends on Thursday 16, November, we all thought that he was okay and still recuperating from his birthday. When his younger brother tried communicating with him via text message on November 17, he didn’t get any response from him, which he found quite odd, because Ronnie is always good at promptly responding to messages.

 Family members tried getting in touch with him the next day but there was still no response from him, this became a concern. His brother and sister went to his residence and knocked on the door for several minutes, but he did not answer the door. They then had to get the authorities to force their way into the residence. It was quite an unnerving situation for them, having to break the door down and not knowing what they would find inside.

We just thank the Lord they found him on the floor after two and a half days, and he was still alive. An ambulance was called, and he was rushed to Coptic Hospital, Nairobi. Unfortunately, his medical insurance lapsed on November 17, 2017, the day he was lying on his floor in a pool of blood and was unable to get it renewed.

Having no medical insurance at the time he was rushed to hospital, they stabilized him but did not do any further treatment until they received a deposit of $2000. Thank goodness, with the support of family and friends coming together the deposit was raised, and the treatment began.

From the time Ronnie was admitted the family has been paying out of pocket with great support from friends and family, far and wide. In January 2018, he was transferred to Physiotherapy Rehabilitation Hospital, in Karen, Nairobi, to start intensive physiotherapy.

He has now been in rehabilitation for three months, there has been a lot of improvement, but there is still a long challenging journey ahead, to come back to 80% - 90% of where he was.

His Neuro doctor has strongly recommended that we take him to India, where he will receive more specialized and advanced treatment for stroke patience. With the help of the Kenya Medical Association the family want to transfer Ronnie to NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute (Cell Centre for Stem Therapy and Neurorehabilitation), India.

The total cost spanning 4 months at this facility, comes to approximately $65,000. This will include, initial treatment, rehabilitation, accommodation, medicine, meals, medical equipment, nursing services and airfare to India.


My husband William passed away in August 2016 and left his eldest son Ronnie, with a lot of responsibility, as his first born. Ronnie has a young family, two daughters, 8 and 12 years old, who need their father back to take care of them as they are still very young and he's their main provider.

This has been a challenging journey and I just want to thank everybody that has walked with us all the way through…financially, emotionally and for all your prayers. We are now reaching out far and wide for support to get my son into this facility. The check in date is August 26, 2018. We truly believe after his treatment in India, it will bring him back to a place of independence and normalcy.

I want to thank you all from the bottom my heart for the support you are giving towards my son, Ronnie.

 May God Bless each one of you!

Melissa R. Malumbe