Eddie needs our help.

*UPDATE*

*Wow, everyone, thank you so much for your incredible generosity, The Durban surf community is amazing … I have sent Eddie your messages, he is so grateful. He’s still in Addington and only marginally better, so will be there for a few more days. Thank you for your love and support!*

Hi Durban friends, surfers and ocean lovers

If you’ve been to North Beach in the mornings, you will know Eddie. He’s there every morning from 4.30am to make sure your car is safe, to hold your keys, to open your boot for your board as you come back, to help you take out your bike and put it back again… he sweeps his parking area, picks up litter and even marked out the parking spaces with chalk every morning until the municipality finally got round to it. Eddie is the ultimate car guard and has become a friend to many of us.

Eddie needs our help.

Eddie has a severe lung infection and is currently in Addington Hospital. He started feeling off-colour last week, but despite going to a doctor last week (thank you Liesl and Freddie!), by yesterday, he was in a critical condition and could barely breathe. JB Blanc (the big Frenchman) took it on himself to take Eddie to ER at Umhlanga, to try and get him immediate and life-saving treatment at an efficient facility that wouldn’t leave him lying in the corridor all day. JB stayed with Eddie in ER all day, making sure that Eddie had support while going through multiple blood tests and x-rays to establish what was wrong. Eddie’s oxygen markers were critically low – even when on oxygen – and it’s safe to say that JB’s intervention yesterday literally saved Eddie’s life.

The doctor’s diagnosis is a severe lung infection which requires Eddie to stay in hospital on oxygen and IV antibiotics for a few nights. Unfortunately, without medical aid, Umhlanga hospital is unaffordable and so began the long, 8-hour process (yes, 8 hours!) to get Eddie accepted by Addington. JB was determined to get an ambulance transfer so that he would be handed over to medical staff correctly, and when Addington finally agreed to accept Eddie at 11pm last night, JB (who was still at Eddie’s side) arranged the ambulance and Eddie finally got admitted to a ward in Addington where he could get some rest.

JB is the hero of this story – his commitment to staying with and supporting Eddie for 13 long hours, seeing him through what was a very traumatic process, is just unbelievable. JB paid for everything at Umhlanga ER – blood tests, x-rays, admission fee, ambulance. All in all, it came to R9800.

This is where you come in.

It would be amazing if you could show your support for Eddie by making a donation – no matter how small – which will go to covering JB’s costs. There may be further costs for a home oxygen machine, but we don’t know yet so at this stage the target reflects the costs incurred so far.

https://backabuddy.co.za/campaign/get-eddie-back-on-his-feet