‘A stranger saved my life’: Ex-rugby player’s organ donation plea to South Africans
· Citizen
When Rhys Thomas, 43, answered his phone at 7am a few weeks ago, he received life-changing news from Cape Town cardiac surgeon Dr Willie Koen.
There was a heart available to replace his damaged one and his long-awaited transplant would take place that morning.
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Previously a professional rugby player, South African-born Thomas rose through the ranks as a talented prop to play for the Wales national rugby union team.
Rugby career cut short by heart attack
However, at just 29 years old in 2012, his rugby career was cut short after he suffered a massive heart attack during training.
“You never expect this to happen to you and then, boom, it takes you down,” says Thomas.
Despite undergoing two heart surgeries in the United Kingdom, he was left with end-stage heart failure, physically a shadow of what he had been as a professional sportsman.
Later, doctors in the UK fitted a battery-operated left ventricular assist device to help his heart pump blood around his body.
“This intervention bought him time, but not quality of life. For someone who lived for sport, being tethered to batteries and unable to swim or shower normally is survival, not living,” says Koen.
Struggles with addiction and depression
In 2019, after years of harrowing battles with depression and addiction following the loss of his profession and identity, compounded by his fragile physical condition, his friends realised that Thomas needed urgent help to stop his self-destructive behaviour.
They intervened and flew him to the Netcare Akeso Stepping Stones in Cape Town, which offers inpatient treatment for the dual diagnosis of addiction and underlying mental health conditions.
“I had a lot of medical care in the UK, but ultimately I left to come home to South Africa because the UK doctors had concerns about performing transplant surgery and my chances of survival afterwards.
“When I finally left the UK 18 months ago, I had to leave my children there. My youngest is just 19 years old, so it was not a decision I took lightly,” says Thomas.
Thomas now lives in Cape Town permanently, but his health continued to deteriorate.
“I was feeling terrible. I was breathless and I couldn’t walk very far. I then turned to Dr Koen for help. I felt the time was right and that he was the doctor to get me through the transplant surgery. It was a tough decision to go ahead with the transplant, but I trusted my gut.”
The call that changed everything
Going back to that morning, Thomas was already at work when the call from Koen came.
“He said, ‘Can you get to the hospital by 10.30?’. I was incredibly nervous, but excited. I got to the hospital, went for a shave and shower and spent those last minutes praying and meditating with my partner, Kez Green.
“My next memory was waking up in the surgical ICU two days later with my children around my bed. It was so special.
“It was my third open-heart surgery and I knew the transplant came with challenges. The way I envisioned it was that if I woke up and saw my children, I would know I had made it.”
Thomas pays tribute to Koen and his team at the Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.
“Some of the things Dr Koen did during the surgery were amazing. There were two inches of scar tissue in my chest cavity and he managed to get through that. It was expertly handled. The team was just fantastic.”
Call for organ donors
Koen is concerned that patients across South Africa are dying while waiting for heart transplants because of a critical shortage of organ donors.
“People like Rhys, who could return to normal lives, working, raising their children, contributing to their communities and their country, are instead dying on waiting lists.”
The shortage persists across all sectors. Thomas joins Koen in urging South Africans to register as organ donors.
“A stranger’s family, in their darkest moment, chose to save my life. That generosity deserves to be honoured by living well.”