A Kilmarnock dad could be given a second chance at life after a U-turn from health chiefs.
The Kilmarnock Standard reported last month how Kris Simpson was told he could be dead before the end of the year after being refused a life-saving operation.
The 32-year-old has end-stage heart failure and was told the NHS would only offer palliative care – despite a specialist saying he was suitable for a mechanical pump that could offer him a chance of survival.
But after our sister paper, the Daily Record, revealed Kris’s plight, the family were called in to a meeting with Scotland’s top heart experts at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire – and told they will now look at options to try to prolong his life.
Young dad sent home to die has second chance at life thanks to Daily Record
Kris has a rare autoimmune condition called Antiphospholipid syndrome.
He has suffered a series of strokes and two massive heart attacks – and his heart could fail at any time.
Doctors are now speaking to specialists in his condition from across the world to devise a treatment plan using a cocktail of drugs and the possible installation of a pacemaker.
Sadly, the family were given the news that the heart pump they thought could save Kris is no longer an option because his condition could cause clotting and internal bleeding.
Kilmarnock dad given months to live refused life-saving operation
Kris, dad to Bethany, five, and three-year-old Isla-Rose, went with mum Helen, 53, to last week’s appointment at the Golden Jubilee after his case was transferred to their care by NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Helen said: “We were told the way Kris was treated at Crosshouse Hospital was completely unacceptable and that the whole way it had been handled wasn’t right. If we hadn’t turned to the Daily Record, there is no way Kris would have been offered this help.
“Doctors wrote him off in January and told him he had just six months to live.
“This news means the world to him and he now has a second chance at life.”
Tributes paid to talented singer who died after falling from Kilmarnock multi-storey car park
The Kilmarnock dad said the news is the miracle he has been praying for, adding: “Thanks to the Record I have a fighting chance.”
Last month Kris told how he needed help to live so that he could see his two precious girls grow up.
He said: “Leaving them behind is my biggest fear. They are my world and my reason to keep fighting. I’m not going to give up when there’s a chance I might live.”
Kris had surgery to put two stents into his arteries and then contracted MRSA. His body also turned toxic when he developed liver problems and kidney failure.
Kilmarnock man admits trying to pull down schoolgirl's shorts as she was falling asleep
He has also battled pneumonia and pleurisy and doctors never expected him to pull through.
But Kris’s fighting spirit has continued to amaze everyone and he is determined to raise the profile of antiphospholipid syndrome, also known as Hughes syndrome, which causes the immune system to produce abnormal antibodies
Kris is making the most of precious time with his girls and says not being able to take them on holiday or on days out is what he misses most.
“It’s robbed me of time with my daughters,” he said. “I want to take them to the park but I’m just not able. That’s what gets to me most of all. I cherish every second I spend with them.”
