YouTube star Alex Dragomir, better known online as Sir Kipsta, has died. The 17-year-old’s family announced Thursday that Dragomir passed away after undergoing an operation on his heart. The YouTuber had previously shared with his 18,000 subscribers that he had heart failure and was awaiting a transplant.
Announcing his passing in a message posted to his Twitter account Thursday evening, Dragomir’s sister shared, “As you all might already know my brother passed away today.” She explained that the teen passed away amid “a very hard operation which lasted 7 hours” and his “heart couldn’t take it anymore, he was too weak to survive.” The message added that “heaven gained another angel,” with the YouTuber’s sister calling him her “rock my everything. RIP Alex.” His passing was also confirmed in a message from his school, which announced “with great sadness” that Dragomir had passed. The school’s message continued, “our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult and sad time.”
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Dragomir began speaking publicly of his health struggles in a May 12 YouTube video from his hospital room. In the clip, he said, “If you don’t know, I have heart failure” and explained, “My heart is weak, this can’t get better unfortunately. You know, there’s always hope, but this can’t get better.” He went on to explain that he was awaiting a heart transplant. In the weeks that followed, he continued to document his journey in various videos, and his family created a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.
“Kipsta has had heart failure which has gotten worse over the years to the point where he’s had to come into hospital where he’ll be living until he gets a heart transplant,” the page read. “However, first he has to get fit for the transplant surgery. Recently, Kipsta’s mum has quit her job in order to support him in his journey. With money being an obvious worry, Kipsta needs our help. It has taken a long time to convince him to set this up due to his humility but with the situation worsening, he needs our help.”
On June 5, Dragomir provided what would be his last update when he shared a tweet just prior to his operation. In that message, he told his followers that he was “going in for a life saving procedure.” He added, “if it don’t work then it’s been a great time people thank you for all you’ve done for me but we pray we see it through and we pray we get fatter and fitter after it for them to see progress and not say they can’t do anything after surgery.”
Amid the outpouring of condolences, Dragomir’s family shared another message to his Twitter account, thanking fans “so much” for their support “thru his hospital journey you all been so amazing.” His family said to his fans, “You all kept him going gave him the energy to carry on! All the messages kept his head up. He carried on due to all the nice support he had from twitter. RIP Alex.”
