Humanity

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this with deep frustration, disappointment, and honestly, heartbreak.

In November 2024, my wife and I lost our son, Joshua. He was born with a severe heart defect, hypoplastic left heart syndrome—something we were never made aware of during the pregnancy. We were faced with an unimaginable situation, and as parents, we made the only decision we could live with: to let our child fight for his life. Sadly, he passed away on the 16th/17th of November.

On the same day he was born, my wife underwent a procedure to prevent future pregnancies. At the time, we believed our family was complete. Had we known what was coming, we would never have made that decision—but life doesn’t give warnings.

Since then, not a day goes by that we don’t think about our son. The pain hasn’t gone away—in fact, in many ways, it has become stronger over time.

We made the decision to try again, through IVF. Not lightly, and not easily. We sacrificed a lot to make this possible. I sold personal belongings, downgraded my vehicle, and we used our savings—all to afford this process because Discovery Medical Aid refused to assist us unless we upgraded to an unaffordable plan costing around R18,000 per month.

Despite being loyal paying members for over 6–7 years, we received no support.

Still, we pushed forward on our own.

We are now at the final stages of the IVF process. Every step up to now has been paid out of our own pockets. We are about a month away from completing the next critical procedure before embryo transfer.

This is where the problem lies.

Discovery is refusing to cover this procedure—not because it is unnecessary, not because it is experimental—but because it is allegedly not performed at the “correct” hospital.

This makes no sense.

We are working with qualified specialists at a fertility clinic that performs these procedures professionally and at a reasonable cost. There are limited facilities capable of doing this work, and we chose a reputable one. Yet, despite having gap cover at 500%, we are still being denied.

This is not just about policy wording anymore.

This is about humanity.

It is incredibly easy to sign up and pay premiums every month. But when people truly need help—when real life happens—then suddenly the fine print appears, and the support disappears.

We are not asking for everything to be covered.

We are asking for help.

We are asking Discovery to at least reimburse 50% of the IVF costs we have already paid out of our own pockets. This will allow us to continue with the remaining procedures we still need to complete this journey.

At the very least, covering this final upcoming procedure would help us move forward—we are only one month away.

We are talking about bringing life into this world after losing a child.

We are talking about parents who are still grieving.

We are talking about doing everything the right way, with the right doctors, and still being treated like we don’t matter.

It feels like we are being pushed around, ignored, and reduced to policy numbers instead of human beings.

All we are asking is this:

Please show some remorse. Please show some humanity. Please help us complete this process.

If companies like Discovery truly value their clients, then now is the time to prove it.

Sincerely, Ruben Nel