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Hui Yi's heart
op: 'It is a miracle, two hearts in two days'
©The
Star (Used by permission)
by Loh Foon Fong and Manjit Kaur
• Transplant touches hearts
• Mum gave her consent for second heart transplant
• Family of new donor praying hard for Hui Yi
• Doc: Immune system will attack foreign antigens
KUALA LUMPUR: Tee Hui Yi’s body was rejecting her new heart and doctors at
the National Heart Institute (IJN) were getting desperate.
Miraculously, a second donor heart became available and the 14-year-old girl got
a second chance – thanks to the parents of a 20-year-old mechanic in Johor who
died in a road mishap.
Hui Yi had shown signs of organ rejection after a 10-hour heart transplant
surgery at the IJN which began at 1.30am on Thursday.
The first heart had come from a 15-year-old boy who was declared brain dead on
Wednesday in Ipoh and the organ was harvested by IJN surgeons and brought back
on a mercy flight to the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang.
On Thursday, the young mechanic Chin Yoon Keong was declared brain dead in
Johor, and his father offered to donate his son’s heart to Hui Yi after having
read in the newspapers about her one-year-wait for the organ.
“Hui Yi would not have made it if she had not received the second heart,” said
IJN heart and lung transplant unit clinical director Dr Mohamed Izani Md Taib.
He said the IJN received an average of one donor heart in six months, but in the
past one year, there was none at all.
“However, in the last two days we received two. This must be divine
intervention,” he said yesterday.
When Hui Yi’s own heart began to fail, doctors at IJN had put her on a
mechanical heart device which could only last two years.
From the day she got the the artificial heart, she had been warded at the IJN,
with her mother by her side.
At the end of the first year on Sept 29, a tearful Hui Yi told pressmen at a
media conference that she had been suffering frequent bouts of fever, vomiting
and body ache – besides anxious, sleepless nights worrying that time was running
out.
On Wednesday night, IJN assembled a team of 35 medical personnel as Hui Yi was
wheeled into the operating theatre about 10.45pm, upon hearing that a heart had
been harvested from a boy in Ipoh who was killed in a road accident.
Hui Yi’s heart was removed and replaced with the donor heart but unfortunately,
the implanted heart failed to function, said IJN’s chief cardiothoracic surgeon
Datuk Dr Mohd Azhari Yakub.
“Blood pressure was unstable even though the heart was in good condition when we
procured it in Ipoh,” he said.
The symptoms pointed to her immune system rejecting the heart, said Dr Mohamed
Izani, who explained that in any organ transplant, despite the matching blood
type, there was a 5% to 10% chance of rejection.
“When we heard that there was a second donor in Johor Baru and that the blood
group and height of the donor match the girl’s, and because her condition was
not stable, we decided to carry out the second transplant,” he said.
The same team of surgeons performed the second transplant which started at 1am
yesterday and ended about seven hours later.
“Her condition is now stable and the heart’s blood pressure is satisfactory.
However, her condition remains critical,” said Dr Mohd Azhari, who headed the
transplant team together with Dr Mohamed Izani.
Transplant touches hearts
KUALA LUMPUR: The double transplant case of 14-year-old Tee Hui Yi had the
Gerakan Youth delegates and VIPs engrossed yesterday.
Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said a heart transplant was more dramatic than blood
donation, which was now a normal procedure.
“When blood is being transfused into one’s body, no one would ask whether this
is blood from a Chinese or Malay. To all of us, it is just human blood,” he
said, adding that Malaysians should be grateful for the advances.
“There are many things we have taken for granted.
“Mutual help and inter-marriages, it is happening in this country,” he said.
Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the noble deed of a
Malay boy’s family donating his heart to Hui Yi transcended race and religion.
“It is so special and touching. In a time when there are issues relating to
racial and religious divisions.
“The act has given us hope. This is exactly what Barisan Nasional tries to do.
We need to highlight more such stories,” said Hishammuddin at the opening of
Gerakan Youth and Wanita delegates' conferences at Menara PGRM yesterday.
Both Hishammuddin and Dr Koh have pledged their organs.
Hishammuddin pledged eight years ago and Dr Koh 10 years ago.
During the Youth debate, a delegate also talked about Hui Yi's case.
Perak Youth delegate Cheah Chee Kuan, from Sungai Siput, said Hui Yi got a heart
from a Malay boy because “we are all Malaysians.”
“Do we have hatred towards our friends of other races?
“The answer is no!” said Cheah.
Mum gave her consent for second heart transplant
KUALA LUMPUR: Tee Hui Yi’s father was not aware that his daughter underwent
the second heart transplant.
Tee Ah Soon, 51, said he and his wife were relieved when the first operation was
conducted, but claimed that he learnt about the second surgery from reporters.
When verified, National Heart Institute (IJN) Heart and Lung Transplant Unit
clinical director Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib said that since they had to make a
quick decision about the second, Hui Yi’s mother who was present at IJN gave her
consent.
He said that since the father was in Batu Pahat, they told Hui Yi’s mother to
inform her husband of the situation.
“I assume she had informed him,” he said, adding that maybe due to her anxiety
she had forgotten.
Tee, however, said that as long as his daughter was fine, it did not matter that
he was not told about the second transplant.
“It does not matter whether it's the first or second heart transplant, as long
as she is okay,” he said after reporters chased after him on his way out to the
IJN car park.
“I am sure the doctors know what they are doing,” he said.
His wife Dina Bato Sam Bua, 46, quickly ran back into the IJN building upon
seeing approaching reporters.
Earlier, Tee said he last saw his daughter on Thursday afternoon after the first
transplant.
“We are waiting for the doctors to alert us, when we will be able to see Hui Yi
again. I hope she gets through this ordeal and will be able to live like any
other normal person,” he said.
Family of new donor praying hard for Hui Yi
JOHOR BARU: The family of an organ donor here is praying for the recovery of
mechanical-heart girl Tee Hui Yi.
The motorcycle shop owner, Chin Pak Siong, 49, said he was pleased that his
son’s heart had been available to save Tee following her body’s rejection of the
first heart from a 15-year-old Malay boy who had died in a road accident in
Ipoh.
“I strongly believe that my son’s heart is compatible with the girl. He was a
good boy and in excellent health.
“He did not smoke and drink,” said the father in a telephone interview
yesterday.
He said the family would be praying hard for Tee’s recovery.
“I hope she can live on, happy and healthy,” he said.
The 20-year-old donor, Yoon Keong, a mechanic, was declared brain dead at the
Sultanah Aminah Hospital here after a road accident.
His family then donated his heart, liver and kidneys to save more lives.
Yoon Keong was the eldest among three siblings.
His body would be cremated today.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported from Ipoh that the father of the 15-year-old
heart donor has himself decided to donate his organs.
“I am ready to sign the papers to donate my organs upon my death,” he said.
He believes that it is more meaningful to donate his organs to those who need
them.
The man, an employee at a madrasah (Quran school) in Sitiawan, said that
his friends at the Perak Islamic Religious Department (Jaip) had told him that
“donating organs is the same as donating blood and whoever does it is making a
huge sacrifice because not everybody can do this”.
Doc: Immune system will attack foreign antigens
KUALA LUMPUR: The immune system in each person recognises the antigens
belonging to him, and it would normally attack foreign antigens, said National
Heart Institute (IJN) consultant cardiologist Datuk Dr David Chew Soon Ping.
Explaining why a person’s body would reject an implanted organ, he said this was
the way the body recognised “self and foreign organs” – and when there is a
transplant from individual A to B, the body would not recognise the organ and
would “ attack” it.
In the case of Tee Hui Yi, the 14-year-old girl’s immune system rejected the
heart, despite her being given immunosuppressant.
“If there is over-immunosuppressant, then there is also a higher risk of
infection,” he added.
Dr Chew said patients who undergo organ transplant are always at risk of
rejection, and the risk is higher immediately after the transplant.
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