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Parents seek donations for S$191,000 hospital bill after son, 9, got Covid-related myocarditis, stopping his heart
Matt Aeron Semodio (pictured) received life-saving emergency treatment at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital after being diagnosed with Covid-19 that led to myocarditis.
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- Matt Aeron Semodio, aged nine, was rushed to the hospital after experiencing chest pains and difficulty breathing
- His heart stopped and he had to be revived for almost an hour before he was hooked up to an Ecmo machine to allow his heart and lungs to rest
- Under intensive care for 11 days, he suffered a mild stroke
- Apart from the constant worry about their son's health, his parents also have an estimated S$335,000 medical bill
- After insurance, they still have to find about S$191,000 out of their own pocket and are hoping to raise funds online to make the payment
BY
JASMINE ONG
Published February 25, 2024Updated February 25, 2024
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SINGAPORE — After returning to Singapore from a joy-filled one-month holiday to the Philippines, Desiree Reyes, 42, and Noel Geralde Semodio, 49, were immediately thrust into one of every parent’s worst nightmares.
Their usually happy nine-year-old son was rushed to the hospital after experiencing chest pains and difficulty breathing, and was soon fighting for his life.
It turned out that the boy had contracted Covid-19, and suffered a heart condition — myocarditis — as a result, requiring life-saving emergency hospital treatment. He also suffered a mild stroke.
Aside from the emotional turmoil, the couple are now facing a large hospital bill. The full bill was about S$335,000 and they still have to find about S$191,000 out of their own pocket after insurance and withdrawals from the Central Provident Fund's MediSave scheme.
They have launched an online fundraiser to raise money to pay the bill, which they showed TODAY.
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Outlining their ordeal in detail, the couple told TODAY on Thursday (Feb 22) that their boy Matt Aeron Semodio seldom had coughs, colds or fever, and was symptom-free when he was playing with his cousins while on holiday.
So, when the family returned to Singapore on Jan 4, they found it strange that Matt started to feel tired and was sleeping all day.
A general practitioner diagnosed Matt as having a regular viral infection since he was not exhibiting any other symptoms aside from just feeling tired and weak. He was given paracetamol as medication.
Later that night, Ms Reyes became markedly more concerned when her son started to complain of chest pains and breathing difficulties.
The couple rushed the boy to the emergency department at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital where he was given an electrocardiogram (ECG) and taken straight to the intensive care unit.
Welling up with emotion, the couple recounted how Matt went into cardiac arrest as his heart stopped during intubation.
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Medical personnel took about an hour to revive him, in what felt like an eternity for the terrified couple.
Mr Semodio, an information technology support staff, sighed and said: “I don’t think there is just one adjective or correct adjective for how I felt. I was devastated, in denial and more scared than anything in my life. It was a mix of emotions that made up the most difficult time in my life.”
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His wife, who also works in IT, said: “It was always panic mode for us.”
As the boy was brought back from the brink, he was put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo), which pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.
The day after Matt was put on Ecmo, the couple said that doctors did several viral and bacterial tests, and found out that Matt had contracted Covid-19, which led to myocarditis.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood, resulting in chest pain, shortness of breath, and rapid or irregular heart rhythms. Viral infections are one of the common causes.
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Recalling the moment she heard the diagnosis, Ms Reyes said: “We didn’t know because everybody tested negative before we returned to Singapore.”
She added that before this, Matt was a completely healthy boy with no heart conditions or lung problems.
In addition to their worries about the diagnosis and seeing their son hooked up to the Ecmo machine, the couple also learnt that Matt had suffered a mild stroke affecting his left side.
They were told that the Ecmo process had side effects, which included the formation of blood clots that reached his brain at some point during the 11 days that he was hooked up to the machine.
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The boy was in the intensive care unit from Jan 5 to 24 before he was moved to a high-dependency ward, which offers closer monitoring than a general ward.
Mr Semidio recalled that when Matt woke up, he told the boy, "Hi, welcome back”, before the two of them prayed. The family are Catholics and have been living in Singapore since 2006 as Ms Reyes is a permanent resident.
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Ms Reyes said that her son’s first words to them were: “Hold my hand.”
Even though their boy was out of intensive care, the couple remained very concerned because their son’s heart was still not able to function normally.
“If I see him just look a bit lethargic, I would get scared but then I would remind myself that the worst is over because his heart is beating on its own again,” Mr Semidio said.
THE RECOVERY AND DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED
TODAY interviewed the couple a few weeks after Matt’s hospitalisation and they said that his recovery has been progressing. They can see a return of traces of their dinosaur- and anime-loving boy.“He can go to the toilet and do the exercises he picked up in physiotherapy. He also started slowly regaining his skills after the mild stroke, and is playing games on his laptop now,” Mr Semidio said.
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Despite the improvement, the couple still have moments of despair.
“It’s been mentally excruciating as a father to see my son like this. Even though he is getting better, it’s difficult to control the mind,” Mr Semidio added.
Since Matt was discharged from the hospital on Feb 8, he has returned twice after vomiting blood, likely a side-effect of his medication.
“I would be happy and then when something happens like this, I will get shaken easily. It is really difficult.
"Sometimes I would second-guess myself and get lost in my thoughts, and sometimes I would just stare at nothing,” Mr Semidio added.
For her part, Ms Reyes said that she still feels "trauma" over the ordeal.
“Every time we try to sleep, we don’t know if Matt is going to feel better. I still can’t sleep well and I have to check on him every once in a while, so the fear is still there.”
On top of such anxiety, the couple have to confront the financial aspect of this ordeal, which has taken a toll on the two full-time working parents who have had to take unpaid leave to care for their son.
It did not help that they were only able to use MediSave and Mr Semidio’s insurance to pay for about S$143,950 of their son’s estimated S$335,000 medical bill. They are still left to find about S$191,000 out of their own pocket.
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The hospital has agreed in principle to their request to pay the bill in instalments, but it is still “a really huge sum”, Mr Semidio said.
That was why when their family friend initiated an online fundraiser through fundraising platform GiveAsia for the family, they could not be more grateful.
“She talked to us and told us that she could do this for us and any form of help is good. Whatever comes in is good, and will help us to pay Matt’s bills moving forward,” Mr Semidio said.
The fundraiser started on Jan 28 and as of Saturday (Feb 24), it has garnered about S$35,000 in donations.
