PORT CHARLOTTE – A recently disabled man is falling through the cracks of his home.
New Year’s Eve marks the end of a chapter for the Borges family.
A rent dispute on both sides – landlord and renter – leads to eviction for Daniel Borges. Both parties believed to be right, but bottom line, he had to get out. Charlotte County Sheriff’s removed Mr. Borges and his family off the premise early Tuesday morning.
Daniel Borges considered himself a workhorse who was unstoppable until life hit him hard.
“I’ve always been that verbal brick in the wall that held it all together,” Daniel Borges said. “I was the one that everyone depended on.”
Three heart attacks, 7 stents, and a stroke later, doctors say he is disabled.
“For the first time in my life, I’m helpless,” Borges said. “You know, I’m six-foot-one, two-hundred-thirty pounds and I’m helpless. There are times when I have trouble just standing up out of a chair.”
His cardiologist from Bayfront Health Port Charlotte classified him as having Stage 3 congestive heart failure.
It’s a progressive disease that gets worse over time, often caused by other conditions that weaken the heart, like his heart attacks. The textbook says he has a life expectancy of three to five years.
His son, Nathan Borges, came down from Tennessee to help his father.
“Everything feels heavier to him because his muscles have somewhat deteriorated,” Nathan Borges said. “He’s not as strong as he was by any means. And, that’s all because of the lack of heart function.”
Now, Daniel lives with a life vest. It shocks him five or six times if his heart rate goes into a lethal rhythm.
“They said that my heart was less than twenty-five percent,” Borges said. “Found out yesterday it was close to twenty percent.”
According to what the doctors told him, fifty to seventy percent is normal for his age.
He has filed for disability through Social Security Administration, but it takes 90 to 120 days to be approved.
So, his son created a gofundme page to help with their financial and medical struggles.
“Basically with a death sentence over my head, I said I want to go back up north,” Borges said. “I want to go somewhere where I can enjoy the change in seasons.”
They plan to step into the New Year with hopes of finding a new home and creating a new life in Tennessee.
