Sebastien’s surgery for his pneumothorax

UPDATE: Seb has had his surgery on 24/02/24, successfully so and without major complications. He still has a chest drain in for blood and pleural fluid, which is normal after such an operation. The pneumothorax appears to have been fixed definitely though which is of great relief to Seb and everyone!

Seb, Kat and myself have been really touched by everyone’s kindness, generosity and love. Seb would like to thank each and everyone of you who contributed and made this possible. Time to recover now in hospital and hope for discharge some time next week.

We have reached the initial AUD $5k within two days, and we are hoping to go all the way to the 10k mark, which will cover 75% of the total expected hospital costs for this whole episode.

Thanking you from the bottom of our hearts,

Really, thank you so much

Seb, Kat, Arshad

Dear Friends and Family of Sebastien,

Two weeks ago Sebastien suddenly developed severe chest pain, coughing up blood and difficulty breathing, on the island of Koh Phangan, Thailand, where he currently lives with his partner Kat. He presented to the island’s hospital and was diagnosed with a spontaneous pneumothorax, a critical condition whereby a tear in the lining of the lung allows inhaled air to accumulate within the thoracic cavity. With each breath, the amount of trapped air increases a little and thus starts to exert pressure on the heart and the other lung. Untreated, this can be lethal.

The first line treatment for a pneumothorax is to insert a chest drain and in most cases, the lung injury heals itself within 2-3 days. The drain is then removed and the patient discharged.

Seb had a chest drain in for a whole week without improvement. The drain was replaced by a local doctor and after four more days, still no improvement.

As such Sebastien has now been transferred to a larger regional hospital (on the mainland) where there is a Cardiothoracic department with appropriately trained specialists. They have advised that Seb needs to have surgery to fix the tear in his lung. (Thoracotomy with pleurodesis, under general anaesthesia)

As a foreigner, Sebastien is not eligible for free healthcare at the public Thai hospitals he has been to. He does not have healthcare insurance. He cannot be repatriated to Mauritius, specifically for a pneumothorax, because trapped intrathoracic air and cabin pressurisation and depressurization do not fare well together.

Seb has already paid half for half of the first hospital bill and now needs to pay for surgery and stay at the second hospital. In total, he is looking at a bill around the Rs 400,000 mark.

Seb and Kat have tried to set up the gofund me themselves but there is no option to hold a campaign in Thailand. As such, I am organizing it on their behalf.

For those who know me, ki p dire?

For those who do not know me, hello, my name is Arshad Damree and I have been friends with Sebastien for over 18 years. I am a doctor in Intensive Care and I currently practice medicine in Australia. (My Australian Health Practitioner registration number is MED [phone redacted], you can look me up on the AHPRA website’s register of practitioners).

I have been in contact with Seb daily since this all began and have a good medical understanding of the situation. Things haven’t been easy and straight forward with the language barriers and the lack of respiratory / Cardiothoracic specialists in the small hospital where Seb was. The hospital where he is now is much more advanced and the team are confident in going ahead with the surgery.

I will ensure that all funds we raise get to Sebastien.

He has remained optimistic and patient throughout the past few weeks, in a manner which I rarely see in patients. Hopefully, one more week in hospital max after the surgery and he will be discharged.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts x

Thank you on behalf of Seb xx

If you can think of a friend who would want to chip in, kindly share, thank you in advance xxx

Sincerely yours

Arshad