It’s easy to dismiss heartburn or acid reflux as minor discomfort—something a pill can fix. That’s how it started for father-of-two Zack Van Aarde. Doctors prescribed medication, reassured him it was routine, and life carried on—until July 2025, when everything changed.
In the early hours one morning, Zack collapsed on the stairs of his home. His wife, Jess, woke to the sound of heavy breathing and then the unimaginable—Zack vomiting blood. She found him pale and barely conscious. “He’d lost so much blood he couldn’t even stand,” she recalled. She called an ambulance while keeping calm for their children.
