KUALA LUMPUR: Tee Hui Yi is indeed a miracle girl. The teenager, who is making steady progress after a second heart transplant on Friday, had no luck with six potential donors in the past nine months.Yet, in a space of 24 hours, she had two suitable donors. The first failed and the doctors are now “cautiously optimistic” about the second heart transplant.
Since January this year, there had been six possible donors. On June 15, the heart of a donor was rejected for being incompatible. The following month, the heart of a man who weighed more than 100kg was rejected. Days later, there was another heart available but the donor was too young, just five. On July 31, the heart of an accident victim was offered to Hui Yi but unfortunately, the organ was found to be damaged.
The fifth chance for Hui Yi came in September but the donor was suffering from hypertension and diabetes. Then just into Ramadan, a private hospital in Alor Star offered her the organ but that donor was found to be a hepatitis carrier. On Thursday, finally, her luck turned. Hui Yi received a heart from a 15-year-old boy diagnosed to be brain dead but soon after the operation her body started rejecting it.
The next day, Hui Yi got the heart of a 20-year-old mechanic who was declared brain dead after a road accident in Johor. National Heart Institute heart and lung transplant unit clinical director Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib said Hui Yi was making good progress after her second transplant. He said she was responding to calls, was moving and obeying commands through signals. “When the doctors asked her which areas she felt pain, she was able to point and was able to move her feet and hands.
“This is good progress and doctors are cautiously happy. We hope for the best in the days to come,” he told a press conference yesterday. Despite her stable condition, Dr Mohamed Ezani said Hui Yi was still in critical condition and not out of danger yet.
He said an echocardiogram was conducted yesterday morning and the test showed the heart was functioning normally. The doctor said she had no breathing problems but was put on a ventilator as a precaution. He added that her wounds were cleaned yesterday at the operating theatre, explaining that it was safer to do it there rather than the Intensive Care Unit.
“She had to be given doses of immunosuppressant and the intra-aortic balloon pump that had been inserted into the vessel was removed in the morning,” he said, adding that Hui Yi’s progress would be closely monitored over the next 72 hours.
He said if everything went well, she would be moved to the normal ward in about five days and fed through a tube. Once she is moved to the ward, he said doctors would continue to conduct biopsies with a tube placed in her heart to check for any infection.
Source: The Star
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