Tee-off to help baby Sebastian

The Dutch Reformed Church in Simon’s Town is hosting a golf day fund-raiser for a 10-month-old baby with a rare congenital heart defect.

Sebastian Opperman, the son of Tean and Micke Opperman and grandson of the church’s minister, Oppies Opperman, was diagnosed with an aortopulmonary window at birth.

The condition is an opening between the aorta, which takes blood from the heart to the body, and the pulmonary artery, which takes blood from the heart to the lungs, according to Micke.

Oppies said Sebastian had open-heart surgery when he was six weeks old at Sunninghill Medical Centre in Johannesburg, where another cardiac defect, a vascular ring, which is an abnormal formation of the aorta that forms a ring that can encircle and may press down on the windpipe or the oesophagus, was detected.

The vascular ring could be corrected and Sebastian stayed in the ICU for a month after his lung collapsed.

Following Sebastian’s procedure, his parents owed R100 000 over and above what the medical aid and gap cover had paid, and their savings were depleted.

With the help of a BackaBuddy fund, donations from family and friends, and motivation from doctors to his medical aid, they managed to settle the outstanding costs.

However, according to Oppies, Sebastian still has a narrowed aorta that will need to be operated on in the future and he will need follow-up consultations with cardiac specialists every six months, paediatric consultations, and more medication. And the aortopulmonary window may have to be repaired again when he is older.

Oppies said the church would hold an annual fund-raiser for children in need of specialised medical care.

In May last year, the church held its first fund-raiser, a golf day for Daniel de Kock, who suffers from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a condition that damages the membrane that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord (“Play golf to save a life,” Echo, May 18, 2023).

This year, the church would split the proceeds equally between Sebastian’s fund and the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s Trust, said Oppies.

Pauline Solomons, the donor relations manager for the Children’s Hospital Trust, confirmed that the church would raise at least R5 000 for the hospital’s paediatric cardiology department.

Ms Solomons said cardiovascular disease was now the third biggest cause of death in the country.

The fund-raiser will take place at the Simon’s Town Golf Club on Saturday April 27. There will be a “shotgun tee-off” for all golfers at 10am and the cost is R200 each. Non-golfers are also welcome. There will be a raffle for a kettle-braai, potjiekos, boerewors rolls, pub lunches and a cash bar at the country club.

Email Mr Opperman at 32oppies@gmail.com for more information.