Ben's Story

On Christmas night, Ben Breedlove, a bright and engaging 18-year-old, died from complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an abnormal thickening of the heart's walls. He had already outlived his life expectancy with the hereditary condition.
And while his story is heartbreaking, Breedlove has already left a legacy of warmth and hope that outshines the tragedy of his death: a video the Austin, Texas teen left behind has gone viral on YouTube, touching thousands of people who had never met him, and bringing one famous rapper to tears.
For more than a year, Breedlove had developed a devoted following on YouTube. Charming and witty, Breedlove would offer kids his age from all over the world advice on everything from dating to studying.
But the video he made just before Christmas was of a much more personal and intimate nature. He shared the details of living and often struggling with a disease that was supposed to have taken his life years earlier. He does so wordlessly, his message written on a series of index cards, as an instrumental version of Gary Jules's Mad World played in the background.
 
The video, filmed in two parts, wasn't found until just after he had died on Christmas Day, playing in the yard with his brother.
His mother, Deanne Breedlove, told the Austin American-Statesman that the videos brought an element of joy amid the grief.
"It was a gift to us," she said. "And for him to be so confident and unafraid of death and to share it with other people was so touching."
In his final video, Breedlove used notecards to describe the three times in his life he "cheated death", surviving seizures that could have taken his life.
"I was never allowed to play all the sports that my friends did," the cards say in his final message. "It kinda sucks that I missed out on that part of my life. I really just hoped that I could be the same as everyone else."
The most recent seizure, Breedlove wrote, had only happened a few weeks earlier, after he passed out at school in early December. While paramedics worked to revive him, Breedlove said he had a vision that Kid Cudi appeared with him in a white room, while his favorite song, Mr Rager, played in the background.
When he came to, he wrote, "I then looked at myself in the mirror. I was proud of myself, of my entire life, everything I have done."
Kid Cudi saw the video and was moved to write to Breedlove from his Tumblr account.
"I am so sad about Ben Breedlove. I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart. I broke down, I am to tears because I hate how life is so unfair," Kid Cudi, whose given name is Scott Mescudi, wrote.
"To Ben's family: you raised a real hero."