MINUTES OF THE NATAL BYPASS CLUB HELD IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM OF THE ENTABENI HOSPITAL, DURBAN ON WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2005.
1. WELCOME
84 As per attendance register.
A special welcome to Geoff Stuart who lives near Port Edward. Members applauded Geoff for the invaluable work he does to ensure that we all receive minutes and notices. He is in charge of printing, stationery and postage.
A warm welcome also to Dave Parry from Port Shepstone.
Jack suggested a lift club to assist members from the South Coast.
2. APOLOGIES
Stuart MacKay; Sandy & Colin Herbst; Mary Leslie (Matatiele); Roy Saunders; Brian Kidd; Tony Arnott; Mavis Brune; Tony & Barbara Thomas; Christine & Alex Jeffrey; Muriel Flowers; Meryl Seymour; Doug Jones; Muriel Adams; Des Sutherland; Piet & Betty Schabort.
We are shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Bishop Mansuet Biyase who gave us such an interesting testimony on 4 May. In recognition of all his achievements for church and country, he received an honorary doctorate of Divinity. Mansuet was the Bishop of Eshowe. He died of a stroke on June 26th. He was 71.
3. TESTIMONIES FROM FIRST TIMERS
a. LEN WITHERS (67) Len’s father died at 50 and his two sisters and three brothers all died within five years. His wife has been in a home for a year suffering from Alzheimer’s. In January this year he went to Mexico on holiday and returned feeling depressed and out of sorts. An examination by Rob Dyer was followed by two angiograms and ultimately a double bypass by Robbie Kleinloog.
4. RAFFLE
Whisky won by John Rider
5. BOOKLET FOR BYPASS PATIENTS
Jack has perused the excellent booklet published by St Augustines and asked their management whether the same format could be used for Entabeni. This was refused and we will have to prepare and publish our own. The St Augustine’s booklet has been given to Les Bolt whose brainchild the project was. He will take action.
6. VISITATION REPORTS
Brief reports from Counsellors at the three hospitals confirmed that the regular visits were appreciated by staff and patients on the cardiac wards. The Bypass Club is indebted to the members who voluntarily give of their time to visit patients to put their minds at rest and to encourage them in their rehabilitation.
7. MEMBERSHIP & FINANCE
The response from the naming of members who were behind in their subscriptions did not meet with the anticipated payments. There were a few exceptions from grateful members who not only paid theirs, but made generous donations.
Rather than pursue the lack of subscriptions, any further this year, we have decided to wait until next year when failure to pay before the end of February 2006 will result in members’ names being removed from the circulation list.
Currently 132 out of 230 members have paid the R25 per annum subscription with approx 20 free membership for doctors.
8. ANNUAL LUNCH
As a result of the success of last year’s lunch at the Durban Country Club, a similar arrangement has been made for Sunday 25 September. This was announced at the last meeting and to date approximately 50 bookings have been made.
Jack will invite VIP’s to join us as our guests. We hope that this years’ response will be an improvement on last year.
9. GUEST SPEAKER
Due to a misunderstanding about the time of our meeting, plus an 8 hour emergency operation, Mr Robbie Kleinloog was an hour late for his presentation, This period was used for ad lib testimonies from members and proved to be most interesting, informative and amusing.
Thus we heard from GILES AUDIBERT who suffered from sleep apnea which resulted in sleeping for 20 minutes and staying awake for hours afterwards. One hours’ sleep was all he had for driving non stop through the night etc. The lack of sleep however caused rattiness and squabbling. He had severe complications after Robbie Kleinloog did his bypass operation.
Ultimately, he went to a sleep clinic and is now totally dependent on a feedback machine which does his breathing for him at night.
MERRIL PIKE (75) gave us a comprehensive testimony two meetings ago and this evening he was encouraged to tell us more.
He suffered a heart attack during a 70km cycle race last year resulting in broken bones and concussion. After a triple bypass and a prosthetic mitral valve, he started riding again and gaining confidence on his cycle. So much so, that he decided to train for this years Argus but had a bad turn during training. The problem appeared to be associated with his heart rate and valve replacement. Once he had recognized this, his cycling proceeded successfully and this year he entered the same race (‘Toti 70km) in which he had his heart event last year. He finished well and now cycles socially as opposed to competitively.
RON ROSENTHAL After a valve replacement two years ago he was aware that on an occasion he spoke “verbal garbage” on his way home and then collapsed on the ground and bled from his nose and eyes. A bystander who could detect no discernable pulse, thumped Ron on his chest which resulted in weak heart beat until the paramedics arrived to stabilise him. He has fully recovered.
ROBBIE KLEINLOOG arrived amidst an arousing welcome and proceeded to address us.
He used a PowerPoint computerised presentation to illustrate his interesting talk.
This showed the appearance of so-called cholesterol (atheroma) in coronary arteries and surprised us all by the length of it in certain cases and the difficulty at times to find a suitable conduit to bypass the obstruction.
We saw a catscan in colour which showed thin sections through the heart and illustrated the heart disease.
There were pictures of a young and normal heart as opposed to a diseased organ. Also illustrated were coronary arteries supplying blood to the left coronary muscle. Then there was shown the left and right coronary arteries and branches which are 2½ mm in diameter, the same as the internal mammary arteries often used as bypass conduits. Robbie dwelt on modern possibilities in the field of coronary repair and spoke of the potential of stem cells for the brain, bones and heart and other parts of the body.
Interesting that, unlike any other muscle, when a heart muscle dies, it stays dead. A technique involving the punching of holes into the heart muscle and filling them with good heart cells was mentioned.
The progress of combating Alzheimer’s, torn cartilage, etc was covered. It is estimated that in 12 – 24 months dramatic breakthroughs will be made.
Robbie introduced us to “My Very Special Guest – FRANCOIS KING”
She suffered from an ailment found more in females than in males and consisting of the pressure in her lungs being too high which often results in death.
She appealed to Robbie to please save her and help her to fulfil her life’s’ ambition ‘just to see her children go to school’.
A donor lung was found and transplanted into Francois. Six years later, this started to fail and she desperately needed a lung and heart transplant due to the pressure caused by the failure of her transplanted lung. Whilst waiting for this operation called a bilateral transplant, she suffered from brain meningitis, leukaemia and eventually a coma. Her husband phoned Robbie and pleaded to please do something. She was admitted to hospital where she waited for six months for organs. Her weight dropped to 33 kg and we were shown slides of her pathetic body. In her own words, “I lost my calves, boobs and bum!”
She was admitted on Christmas Day 2003 and on 3 June 2004 she successfully received new lungs and a heart.
But after the prolonged stay in hospital she found it difficult to fit back in her home environment and couldn’t cope with her children who wanted her back at hospital and to stop laying down the law.
This was happily only transitory and now she has adjusted completely to a normal life. One of her joys is being able to shout words of encouragement to her children at sports events.
Emotionally she pointed to her husband in the audience and thanked him for the 14 years of marriage and never giving up hope and then to Robbie and said “Thank you Robbie, the most wonderful man in the world who gave me back my life.” Finally she said, “You don’t realize how valuable your organs are until you lose them!”
We bade her an emotional thanks for her heart-rending testimony and Robbie for bringing her to us.
Thank you
Jack Piek
Tel 031 563 3200
MINUTES OF THE NATAL BYPASS CLUB HELD IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM OF THE ENTABENI HOSPITAL, DURBAN ON WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2005.
1. WELCOME
84 As per attendance register.
A special welcome to Geoff Stuart who lives near Port Edward. Members applauded Geoff for the invaluable work he does to ensure that we all receive minutes and notices. He is in charge of printing, stationery and postage.
A warm welcome also to Dave Parry from Port Shepstone.
Jack suggested a lift club to assist members from the South Coast.
2. APOLOGIES
Stuart MacKay; Sandy & Colin Herbst; Mary Leslie (Matatiele); Roy Saunders; Brian Kidd; Tony Arnott; Mavis Brune; Tony & Barbara Thomas; Christine & Alex Jeffrey; Muriel Flowers; Meryl Seymour; Doug Jones; Muriel Adams; Des Sutherland; Piet & Betty Schabort.
We are shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Bishop Mansuet Biyase who gave us such an interesting testimony on 4 May. In recognition of all his achievements for church and country, he received an honorary doctorate of Divinity. Mansuet was the Bishop of Eshowe. He died of a stroke on June 26th. He was 71.
3. TESTIMONIES FROM FIRST TIMERS
a. LEN WITHERS (67) Len’s father died at 50 and his two sisters and three brothers all died within five years. His wife has been in a home for a year suffering from Alzheimer’s. In January this year he went to Mexico on holiday and returned feeling depressed and out of sorts. An examination by Rob Dyer was followed by two angiograms and ultimately a double bypass by Robbie Kleinloog.
4. RAFFLE
Whisky won by John Rider
5. BOOKLET FOR BYPASS PATIENTS
Jack has perused the excellent booklet published by St Augustines and asked their management whether the same format could be used for Entabeni. This was refused and we will have to prepare and publish our own. The St Augustine’s booklet has been given to Les Bolt whose brainchild the project was. He will take action.
6. VISITATION REPORTS
Brief reports from Counsellors at the three hospitals confirmed that the regular visits were appreciated by staff and patients on the cardiac wards. The Bypass Club is indebted to the members who voluntarily give of their time to visit patients to put their minds at rest and to encourage them in their rehabilitation.
7. MEMBERSHIP & FINANCE
The response from the naming of members who were behind in their subscriptions did not meet with the anticipated payments. There were a few exceptions from grateful members who not only paid theirs, but made generous donations.
Rather than pursue the lack of subscriptions, any further this year, we have decided to wait until next year when failure to pay before the end of February 2006 will result in members’ names being removed from the circulation list.
Currently 132 out of 230 members have paid the R25 per annum subscription with approx 20 free membership for doctors.
8. ANNUAL LUNCH
As a result of the success of last year’s lunch at the Durban Country Club, a similar arrangement has been made for Sunday 25 September. This was announced at the last meeting and to date approximately 50 bookings have been made.
Jack will invite VIP’s to join us as our guests. We hope that this years’ response will be an improvement on last year.
9. GUEST SPEAKER
Due to a misunderstanding about the time of our meeting, plus an 8 hour emergency operation, Mr Robbie Kleinloog was an hour late for his presentation, This period was used for ad lib testimonies from members and proved to be most interesting, informative and amusing.
Thus we heard from GILES AUDIBERT who suffered from sleep apnea which resulted in sleeping for 20 minutes and staying awake for hours afterwards. One hours’ sleep was all he had for driving non stop through the night etc. The lack of sleep however caused rattiness and squabbling. He had severe complications after Robbie Kleinloog did his bypass operation.
Ultimately, he went to a sleep clinic and is now totally dependent on a feedback machine which does his breathing for him at night.
MERRIL PIKE (75) gave us a comprehensive testimony two meetings ago and this evening he was encouraged to tell us more.
He suffered a heart attack during a 70km cycle race last year resulting in broken bones and concussion. After a triple bypass and a prosthetic mitral valve, he started riding again and gaining confidence on his cycle. So much so, that he decided to train for this years Argus but had a bad turn during training. The problem appeared to be associated with his heart rate and valve replacement. Once he had recognized this, his cycling proceeded successfully and this year he entered the same race (‘Toti 70km) in which he had his heart event last year. He finished well and now cycles socially as opposed to competitively.
RON ROSENTHAL After a valve replacement two years ago he was aware that on an occasion he spoke “verbal garbage” on his way home and then collapsed on the ground and bled from his nose and eyes. A bystander who could detect no discernable pulse, thumped Ron on his chest which resulted in weak heart beat until the paramedics arrived to stabilise him. He has fully recovered.
ROBBIE KLEINLOOG arrived amidst an arousing welcome and proceeded to address us.
He used a PowerPoint computerised presentation to illustrate his interesting talk.
This showed the appearance of so-called cholesterol (atheroma) in coronary arteries and surprised us all by the length of it in certain cases and the difficulty at times to find a suitable conduit to bypass the obstruction.
We saw a catscan in colour which showed thin sections through the heart and illustrated the heart disease.
There were pictures of a young and normal heart as opposed to a diseased organ. Also illustrated were coronary arteries supplying blood to the left coronary muscle. Then there was shown the left and right coronary arteries and branches which are 2½ mm in diameter, the same as the internal mammary arteries often used as bypass conduits. Robbie dwelt on modern possibilities in the field of coronary repair and spoke of the potential of stem cells for the brain, bones and heart and other parts of the body.
Interesting that, unlike any other muscle, when a heart muscle dies, it stays dead. A technique involving the punching of holes into the heart muscle and filling them with good heart cells was mentioned.
The progress of combating Alzheimer’s, torn cartilage, etc was covered. It is estimated that in 12 – 24 months dramatic breakthroughs will be made.
Robbie introduced us to “My Very Special Guest – FRANCOIS KING”
She suffered from an ailment found more in females than in males and consisting of the pressure in her lungs being too high which often results in death.
She appealed to Robbie to please save her and help her to fulfil her life’s’ ambition ‘just to see her children go to school’.
A donor lung was found and transplanted into Francois. Six years later, this started to fail and she desperately needed a lung and heart transplant due to the pressure caused by the failure of her transplanted lung. Whilst waiting for this operation called a bilateral transplant, she suffered from brain meningitis, leukaemia and eventually a coma. Her husband phoned Robbie and pleaded to please do something. She was admitted to hospital where she waited for six months for organs. Her weight dropped to 33 kg and we were shown slides of her pathetic body. In her own words, “I lost my calves, boobs and bum!”
She was admitted on Christmas Day 2003 and on 3 June 2004 she successfully received new lungs and a heart.
But after the prolonged stay in hospital she found it difficult to fit back in her home environment and couldn’t cope with her children who wanted her back at hospital and to stop laying down the law.
This was happily only transitory and now she has adjusted completely to a normal life. One of her joys is being able to shout words of encouragement to her children at sports events.
Emotionally she pointed to her husband in the audience and thanked him for the 14 years of marriage and never giving up hope and then to Robbie and said “Thank you Robbie, the most wonderful man in the world who gave me back my life.” Finally she said, “You don’t realize how valuable your organs are until you lose them!”
We bade her an emotional thanks for her heart-rending testimony and Robbie for bringing her to us.
Thank you
Jack Piek
Tel 031 563 3200
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