He is a young man, just 37 years old, with a wife and six-month-old infant, but he is nevertheless embarking on the fight of his life in an expensive epic journey towards heart and lung transplants. Last week, his East End family, after years of struggling quietly to pay enormous hospital bills, finally appealed to the public.

Following an appeal on a local radio station, contributions from listeners from all walks of life poured in, bringing some light at the end of the tunnel.

“All the while we never appealed for help,” his mother-in-law East End’s Cynthia Scott said. “We kept it right here in the family,” she said, while at the same time effusively thanking her East End Church and the Adventist Church in general for their support through all the crises.

For Brian Rigby, the journey started in 2011 in Cayman when he inhaled fumes from some cleaning chemicals. That triggered pneumonia and activated a pre-existing but latent condition – lupus. As Brian’s insurance was based in his native Turks and Caicos and hospitals in Cayman did not qualify under that scheme, after intensive care and stabilization in Cayman, he returned home to the TCI in 2012, accompanied by his Caymanian wife, Sonya.

Since then, however, he has been going the rounds of hospitals in his native Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

It was while he was in hospital in the Dominican Republic in 2015, while in the ICU for 13 days that they discovered the extent to which his heart was damaged and the devastating state of his lungs. The chemical poisoning while working in Cayman as a security officer back in 2011 in a building that was being cleaned had greatly exacerbated and accelerated his otherwise latent lupus, launching him into crisis mode ever since.

Needless to say, the illness has had devastating financial consequences for Brian and his East End family. The company for which he worked in Cayman has now gone out of business, although back in 2011 it did stand the cost of his initial hospitalization here. Hospitalisation, of course, often take a secondary place to the costs of the high-powered medications in cases like these; combined, they have taken their toll on the family’s finances.

In the meantime, his wife Sonya, a qualified architect who worked in a number of local architectural firms before teaching art at a high school in the TCI, returned to Cayman last December to await the birth of their first child, Nathaniel. Brian followed in January.

By mid-February, however, Brian’s health took a turn for the worse and complications landed him back in hospital at Health City. His TCI insurance not applicable here, his local family took care of his bills at Health City, where they ran the gamut of tests and medication trials over three or four stays. His last stint at Health City was over the recent July 4 weekend. He spent a day in ICU and the remaining four days on the general ward, resulting in new prescriptions for expensive medications, and racking up a bill of CI$8,000.

His East End family’s resources are now close to being depleted, and the struggle is on to pay Health City.

The broadcast last week Tuesday and Thursday (19 and 21 July) on Praise 87.9 radio station was the first pubic appeal by the family, and some CI$2,300, not including promised donations, was raised.

“We have been through some serious expenses, but every time God has seen us through,” his wife Sonya said. “I believe that God has given us this trial because he knew that he could rely on us to trust Him.”

The family is especially grateful for the prayers and thoughtful support from the people of the East End community, throughout Grand Cayman, and around the world.

As an example of assistance, during a prior Health City hospitalization, in mid-February of this year, he learned that needed a bigger oxygen concentrator with constant flow. The Cayman Islands Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Turks and Caicos Mission of Seventh-day Adventists assisted with that purchase.

In his latest hospital foray, Last Friday, Brian underwent a risky procedure at Health City. That satisfied his TCI insurers, who will be covering his transplant surgeries, that there was no alternative.

So what is next for Brian and his young family?

Brian will be heading back to TCI soon for finalization of his paperwork and then another medevac trip to a location to be confirmed to await the transplants. He will be accompanied by his wife, who will not be able to work as she takes care of Nathaniel while being there for Brian. With the family’s resources diminished by the many prior hospital bills, the family is looking at how it can cope financially.

“We don’t know how long they will be waiting the transplant,” his mother-in-law said. “The doctors have told us that could take up to two years, based on the experiences of others.”

Mrs. Scott said that they continue to trust in God and the generosity of Cayman. They will be writing personal letters, she said. Last week, in advance of their wait in a yet-to-be designated location, they launched an appeal for a $1-a-month personal contribution from those who are moved by their plight.

“As Sonya will need money to live on while in the UK, we thought a $1-a-month sustained contribution would be a big help,” Mrs. Scott said. For the convenience of contributors, an account has been set up at Cayman National Bank — Brian Rigby/ Sonya Scott-Rigby, CI dollar account # 012-37129.

As Brian prepares for the next phase of care, he considers that there is a bright side to it all — he is now pain free and no organs other than his heart and lungs have been affected.

However, it is clear, his doctors have said, time is of the essence. The side effects of the medications are beginning to affect his sight and have brought on diabetes.

Asked how he was coping with his condition and the prospect of the transplant, Brian said: “Sometimes I am up and sometimes I am down – but mostly I am up because of the encouragement of everyone around me – my family and friends. I have learned to adapt to what I need to do,” adding: “God has sustained me through it all and He will continue to do the same. I believe that this battle has already been won.”