Colombian student's dream of studying in Toronto turns into fight for survival after sudden stroke

Maicol Antonio Londoño Sastre arrived in Toronto from Colombia in October 2022, excited to start English courses with the hope of eventually attending college in the city.

By February, he was fighting for his life.

The 20-year-old, who goes by the last name Londoño, had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke — caused by bleeding in the brain — seen in only about 15 to 20 percent of stroke cases.

All the while, his family was over 4,400 kilometres away in Villavicencio in central Colombia, where his mother, Zulma Sastre, was stunned to learn what happened to her son.

"In the moment … I said, 'This is impossible.' I had been speaking to him all day," she said. "It is not easy news to overcome."

Now as he fights to recover, Londoño's family is urgently asking the community to help raise funds for his continued treatment for what's expected to be a long road. Receiving care in Toronto gives Londoño the best chance of returning to a normal life, they say.

Londoño was at a gathering with friends on Feb. 6 when he lost consciousness. He had been vomiting and feeling sick all day, according to his mother.

Londoño was diagnosed with a hemorrhagic stroke and taken to Toronto Western Hospital, where he was placed in a coma in the intensive care unit to prevent brain damage. After two brain surgeries and one surgery on his throat, doctors put him on life support, she said.

His mother told CBC Toronto she gave doctors medical authorization to operate on her son using a translator over the phone as she does not speak English.

Knowing that her son was in another country, completely alone, was incredibly challenging, said Sastre.

It was also surprising. Londoño was an "active guy" and that the first thing he did when he arrived in Canada was join a gym, his mother said. He dreamed of "making a life" in Canada, she said.

It took 10 days for Sastre to raise money and obtain a visa for herself and another relative to arrive in Toronto. 

Now, after spending 22 days in an induced coma and also fighting off a serious virus he contracted a few days after being hospitalized, Londoño's condition is considered serious but no longer life-threatening,

But while he has some movement in his arms and limbs, he can't walk without support, and he can't speak or breathe on its own, his mother said.