Hey everyone. My name is Elena. I’m 16 years old. My best friend, Adam, just told me that he has tricuspid valve disease. That basically means that he has a back flow of blood in his heart, putting him under the risk of a heart attack at any time.
He’s never told anyone this. The only people who know are me and his family. He trusts me enough to tell me anything. He’s pretty depressed about it.
He can’t do what every other guy can do because of heart. He gets tired quickly. He ignores his condition and does whatever he likes though, even if the doctor told him to avoid some things. When I asked him why he does this, he said that he doesn’t like feeling any different from everyone else, and he doesn’t like the fact that his condition limits him to things, so he ignores it and challenges his heart, pushing it to its limits. Sometimes he gets really tired and out of breath yet he doesn’t stop whatever he’s doing just to prove that he’s no ‘weaker’ than anyone else.
I don’t know what to do about it…I’m so worried about him. He can get a heart attack at any time because of what he’s doing, and it would kill him right on the spot…Is he depressed? I still can’t fully understand why he does this. What can I do to help him?
P.S. I already tried make him understand that it’s okay that he’s different, and in fact none of us are the same, yet he doesn’t listen. Also, he can have heart surgery to fix his problem but me, him, and his family are against it because it’s so risky and he can die from it.
