MONTREAL - Demetri Paschalis has found a novel way to thank the hospital that saved his life: he rapped about it.
Pascahalis, was given plenty of material for his harrowing health narrative after he was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital suffering what he believed to be a case of pneumonia.
Instead he was diagnosed with rare affliction known as goodpastures syndrome. The condition afflicts about one in a million and devastates the lungs and kidneys.
He was put on a ventilator, given dialysis and chemotherapy to suppress his immune system.
“They told us he needed to be put into an induced coma for 48 hours and for us to pray and hope that he pulls through,” said his mother Jamies Kostaridis.
His dire condition shocked even veteran hospital staffers.
“Nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, we're not used to see an 18-year old in our ICU, and I think a lot of us were very touched,” said nurse Julia Lefebvre.
Paschalis remembers some of his darkest moments of ill-health.
“I couldn't walk, I couldn't wash myself, I couldn't go to the bathroom myself, they were taking me out of the bed with a crane, I was on medication, I wasn't sure if my kidneys were going to come back,” said Paschalis.
But he eventually pulled through and he now credits the experience for making him a better person.
“I started being more spiritual after this, because when doctors and people tell you you're a miracle and an angel touched you, and these are people that see this all the time, I was very touched by it,” he said.
Paschalis, under the name Don Delta, has described the event in a rap number called Picture This, shot in a room at the Royal Victoria.
He said he wants the song to send a positive message to others facing similar health challenges.
“Without a hospital that took care of me and my family supporting me as much as they did, I don't see how I could still be alive today,” he said.
