Faty: My life and death battle

“I even thought maybe dark forces, like witchcraft, were at play.”

It was during 2003 at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon that the world watched in stunned disbelief as Cameroon’s combative midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed during the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final tie against Columbia. It was later discovered that Foe had suffered from sudden cardiac arrest. Years later, a 23-year-old star midfielder for Bolton Wanderers, Fabrice Muamba, also collapsed and,

according to medical reports “died” for at least six minutes before he was revived with a defibrillator and mercifully survived, but not before the world was plunged into the trauma of watching him collapse, forcing the FA Cup match to be called off. There is an almost similar story playing out down south of the African continent, as Burundian midfielder Papy Faty has also been diagnosed by medical doctors to be suffering from a heart condition, advising him to stop playing. But he refuses to accept their diagnosis and, in this exclusive interview with Soccer Laduma’s Thomas Kwenaite, the former Bidvest Wits player reveals how he once lost consciousness during a match, but refuses to accept that he is dicing with death by defying medical advice. Read on for more!

Thomas Kwenaite: How do you feel after qualifying for the AFCON for the first time in Burundi’s history?

Papy Faty:

I feel great. It just feels great because it’s like a dream come true for the whole nation. It is true that sport can bring people together. I remember when former SA President Nelson Mandela talked about sport being a catalyst to unite people. People celebrated the entire night and the following morning.

TK: Now you are playing for Malanti Chiefs in eSwatini.

PF:

Football in Swaziland is semi-professional. But I never thought that the league could be so tough. Hey, those guys can kick the crap out of you! I found it difficult to adapt when I arrived because I thought it would be easy.

TK: Let us talk about your career at Bidvest Wits.

PF:

I was happy and comfortable when I signed for Wits. Everything was conducted in a very professional manner and I felt at home, only required to deliver on the field. They treated me well and I have nothing but praise about the team.

TK: And then tragedy struck. PF:

I was in my fifth season with Wits when one day I lost consciousness briefly. I had suffered a runny tummy the previous night and, during the morning session, I guess I was a bit dehydrated and I was not feeling good at all. That afternoon, I collapsed during a friendly game against SuperSport United. It was only for a few seconds and, when I regained my senses, the team doctor asked me which team we were playing against, whether I remembered what happened, and I answered all the questions, even who I had been marking shortly before I lost consciousness!

TK: And then? PF:

The doctor asked me how I was feeling and I told him I was hungry. I guess because I had not eaten due to the runny tummy and the fact that everything I gulped came out again caused the hunger pangs. He gave me a chocolate bar and suggested that he was taking me to hospital for further checkups. To be quite honest, I thought he was exaggerating a bit, but I took my car and drove myself to hospital.

TK: That’s crazy! PF:

I was admitted right away. The doctors said I might feel well physically, but they were concerned about what they “saw” inside and that kind of freaked me out. The doctor said the situation was so grave that I could actually die. They ran some tests and discharged me the next day, promising to give me results after a period of four weeks. In the meantime, they forbade me from playing football or even training.

TK: That sounds hectic! PF:

The strange thing is that I felt perfectly okay, and I even defied the doctors and started training on my own the very next day. And because I felt better when I was training, I consulted another medical doctor who put me on a treadmill but ended up telling me the very same thing the first doctor told me, which was a bit scary. He suggested that I should go for an MRI scan. I went to do it and what was strange was that what those doctors told me was completely different to what the MRI scan revealed.

TK: What did the scan reveal? PF:

The doctor informed me that the right side of my heart did not function properly. He hinted something along the lines of the doctors that checked me having misdiagnosed me because he said he detected an infection of the blood inside my heart and feared that this infection could cause something similar to a wound that could end up completely destroying my heart.

TK: And how did you react to this? PF:

I was numbed, and for a few seconds, I was still. But then I asked the doctor why, if there was a wound forming in my heart, I was able to talk to him, breathe, walk, run, feel the hot air. I started asking myself why, if that was true, didn’t doctors discover this “wound” when I went for medical check-ups in Holland, Turkey during all the years that I was playing there, including the four years I had spent at Wits? I just couldn’t find any plausible answer.

TK: How did you cope afterwards? PF:

The doctor cautioned me against training or straining my body. He said he wanted to run a couple of tests and again stressed that overexerting my body could be fatal. He warned that my situation was so dire that I could actually even die in my sleep. My mind was swirling and spinning out of control. I have been told different things, but my mind said something different. I was so confused that I even thought maybe dark forces, like witchcraft, were at play.

TK: Hmm. PF:

I was barred from playing. But I felt ok and just did not see myself divorced from something that I loved so deeply. I went to Wits and proposed that they allow me to play and we would sign a document that would exonerate them from blame should I die on the field while playing. But Wits turned down my proposal hands down.

TK: Naturally they were concerned. PF:

The funny thing is that, at the same time, the Burundi national selectors called and asked why I had not been playing for two months. I told them the truth and they asked how I felt. Naturally I informed them I felt good, fit and strong. They requested Wits to release me and wanted to physically check me. Wits were worried, but released me. After undergoing a physical check-up, the coach asked me how I felt. I assured him I had never felt better and I was included in the matchday squad against Namibia in Windhoek. I played the full 90 minutes and we flew directly to Bujumbura where, three days later, I played another 90 minutes without any side effect.

TK: But were you not scared? PF:

It gets better. Unbeknown to me, Wits had dispatched a scout to watch both games and recommend the best player he had seen from the two matches. It turned out the scout mentioned my jersey number as his Man of the Match in both matches. Considering that I had not been playing for two months, Wits were utterly shocked and, on my return, Jose Ferreira took out that document I proposed exonerating them from blame should I die and we both signed the paper. Of course, we also consulted an attorney and all three parties signed!

TK: That’s straight out of a movie!

PF:

I signed, yes, but the coach (Gavin Hunt) was scared. He told me, “Son, I love you too much, I don’t want to lose you.” I assured him I could not die from that type of sickness. His response was, “You don’t know what you are talking about!” I told the coach I knew myself and I knew my body and I was not going to die anytime soon. Wits traveled to Free State Stars. Instead of 18 players, coach Hunt travelled with 19 players as a precaution, I suppose. He was scared and I don’t blame him, as I don’t think he had ever been faced with such a situation. He put me in the stands. The next game was against SuperSport United. I literally begged him to play me. I scored two goals in that game and was on fire. In the next game, a midweek fixture against Chippa United, I started again. Midway through the match, I lost consciousness. I did not collapse mind you, and I continued playing for the next 10 minutes or so, but I suspect coach Hunt was alarmed and substituted me. Something strange was happening on that day. I remember looking straight ahead, and everything was fine. I could still play and felt in control, but when I looked up in the sky, I saw things that I cannot, to this day, describe to anyone. That’s when I requested the coach to replace me. Three days later at training, Wits decided that they could no longer allow me to play. The CEO (Ferreira) suggested that we should wait for the results of the laboratory tests and, until then, I could not train or play for the team until the end of the season.

TK: This was quite some drama. PF:

It was during this period that SuperSport approached me and we signed a pre-contract. They also suggested that I should demand my release form from Wits. I secured my release form or clearance at the end of the season. But I guess Jose approached United CEO (Stan Matthews) and, whatever they discussed, I suspect Wits probably informed them that they could not play me. SuperSport suddenly changed their minds about offering me a contract. I could not sue them for breach of contract. I just simply let go and focused on getting better.

TK: Is that when you decided to go down to eSwatini?

PF: Not just yet. I decided to find out what was going on with my own life. I decided I wanted to know what was wrong with me and, at that stage, some people suggested that I consult sangomas or faith healers; others suggested I consult prophets; others advised that I should quit the game and others still suggested that I should go into coaching or become a talent scout. My life was simply miserable. I didn’t know what to do. In the end, a friend encouraged me to continue training. That is when I joined a small side, an academy actually, and increased my fitness levels to acceptable standards. At the same time, I was working part-time for Kwese TV as an analyst and training with the academy.

TK: Then how did you end up at Malanti Chiefs?

PF:

I consulted another doctor at the George Mukhari Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa to seek another opinion. He performed what is called a cardiac angiogram to check my heart. It is not a simple procedure, but to the shock of my life, the doctors informed me that almost everything, including my valves, was functioning perfectly – would you believe that? They suggested that perhaps my blood was thick and they needed to put me on medication that would make my blood normal.

TK: Strange, after enduring so much. PF:

Yeah. That was prior to a doctor suggesting that he needed to insert a battery-operated device into my body.

He explained that this device would assist me every time I collapsed, but I refused. Perhaps this is wrong, but there are people who use traditional herbs to heal others and may the Lord forgive me, but I consulted one sangoma and, much as I am a Muslim, there were some weird things happening to me and something like a curse hung over me and I had to check this out.

TK: Was it checked out to your satisfaction and are you convinced that you have been healed now?

PF:

I was playing for Real Kings in the National First Division and the chairman of the club was a little apprehensive because apparently there had been a directive from the PSL that clubs should desist from fielding “certain” players with “deficiencies”. I made things easier for the chairman of Real Kings who proposed that I became an assistant coach – instead, I offered to resign.

TK: And then what did you do next? PF:

I traveled to Nigeria to consult Prophet TB Joshua. They prayed for me and gave me some holy water. When I returned and, after maintaining my own training regime for almost three months, I returned to the doctor at the Johannesburg hospital and requested him to check me one more time. He refused and claimed he did not want to waste his time as I was adamant that I would not allow him to insert that battery-operated contraption into me. He said he would check me on condition that I accepted to install the device.

TK: Why did you refuse to have this contraption inserted into you if it would assist you?

PF:

I just did not feel comfortable to have a device planted into me and I just requested a friend of mine to seek a club for me, outside South Africa – I did not care whether it was in Mozambique, Botswana, as long as I could get an opportunity to play.

TK: That’s where Malanti Chiefs came through?

PF:

Yes, the chairman of Malanti Chiefs called me and offered me a contract. But I requested a six-month contract and after lengthy negotiations, he eventually, albeit reluctantly, agreed.

TK: Why demand a short-term contract?

PF:

Because I have unfinished business overseas. I still want to go back to Europe to compete there. And I wish to thank Burundi national selectors as well as the national coach for their faith in me. Now that Burundi has qualified for the AFCON, my greatest wish is to be offered an opportunity to play at the tournament, then the world will see if Papy Faty has a heart condition or not.

TK: Papy, thank you ever so much for opening up to us.

PF:

The pleasure is mine.