Hey guys,
I want to start by saying why I’m sharing this here. I’m Moroccan, and this hits the state of our health system directly.
I’m a 21 year old guy supposed to be worrying about college life, but instead I’m stuck between hospitals and doctors trying to figure out what’s wrong with me.
For context, I have a history with chronic diseases. I was born with two heart problems. One was time-sensitive, so I had urgent surgery at 14 months for a coarctation of the aorta. After I was stable, my parents decided I was “good enough” and stopped following up with the specialist. I still had the second problem called "a bicuspid aortic valve"but it wasn’t causing harm yet. Fast forward to age 16: I discovered I had severe stenosis from that valve, which led to left ventricular hypertrophy, and I needed a mechanical valve. The surgery wasn’t smooth. I was paralyzed for over a month and sustained a brain injury I still live with its complications to this day. I won’t go into detail, since it’s not directly relevant now—except that I was left on a powerful heart rhythm drug with no actual follow-up.
To save my life, the surgeon put me on this dangerous medication as a lifeline. At my final check-up, he refused to take responsibility for it and brushed me off, saying I should keep taking it and that my cardiologist would guide me. When my father asked her, she denied the drug even existed. So I took it for about two more years. At another follow-up, when confronted, she said it was out of her expertise and we should see a rhythm specialist. My dad, shocked at the extra cost, shut it down and said we wouldn’t go, and just buried it. I did what he wanted and kept taking the drug for another two years because I couldn’t handle his loud, abusive tantrums. I was desperate to move on with my life and have a normal college experience, already traumatized enough by hospitals.
This year, I hit my limit. I was so sick and systemically fatigued after a cardiac crisis that I had to give up everything—I wasn’t doing well in my studies—and search for answers. I researched the drug and discovered shocking info: it’s meant only for short-term, emergency use. I finally found an electrophysiologist. It took months of expensive tests (costing around 15,000 DH) to figure out what’s wrong.
It’s not looking good. I was diagnosed with an incomplete heart bloc it's also called a trifascicular block. The human heart has three main electrical pathways to keep it beating. In my case, two are already dead, and the third (the one keeping me alive) already has a first-degree block. My doctor said my case is severe. To put it in perspective, he told me about an 80 year old patient with a similar but objectively less serious situation who refused proper treatment, despite multiple warnings. One year later, he died of cardiac arrest as a consequence of his disease.
After months of investigations, my doctor says I need a pacemake which is a device implanted to replace the heart’s electrical system. Here’s the problem he put me in. He doesn’t think a traditional pacemaker is the right option for me . He prefers I “choose” the most advanced one. Only nine patients in the entire country have had this implanted (four by my doctor). A standard pacemaker’s battery lasts up to 10 years and the leadless ( without wires ) , most advanced one lasts 20. He justified this by explaining that the traditional one requires wires implanted in the body, which bring a whole basket of complications I’d live to see. Normally, pacemaker patients are old, so we expect only two or three replacements before the body can’t handle it anymore. In my case, I’m very young—if I go with the traditional one, I’m essentially deciding I’ll only make it to my 40s or 50s at best, and I’ll die from wire complications that an elderly patient wouldn’t live long enough to experience.
Here’s the catch: because this new technology was introduced in Morocco in the last two years, it’s not covered by any medical insurance in my case, CNOPs. I’d have to pay 180,000 DH out of pocket. My father wouldn’t get a single dirham back. A traditional pacemaker would cost about 50,000 DH and be covered by CNOPs. I have no way to get that money. I haven’t even found the courage to tell my parents yet, because it’s going to destroy them.
So I’m in a critical situation: no treatment, I have one year to live: the cheap treatment would gain me only 20–30 years at best; if I want a normal lifespan, I should “choose” the expensive one.
I’m sharing this with you guys because I just can’t handle it all by myself. I want to hear your opinions. Thanks a lot to anyone who read all of this.
Also yesterday May the 6th was my birthday yay such news was the best present ever
Note : I apology for using an AI tool to summarize my initial text so ut would be much lighter and readable thanks