This is the most poignant and heart wrenching statement made by the father of the 15 year old boy who donated his son's heart to Tee Hui Yi (story: Hui Yi successfully undergoes heart ops). On why he agreed for his son to be an organ donor, he said:
KUALA LUMPUR: Mechanical heart girl Tee Hui Yi successfully underwent a heart transplant yesterday after receiving the organ from an accident patient who died in Ipoh on Wednesday.
Several of the 15-year-old donor's organs were donated.
Hui Yi, 14, was wheeled into the National Heart Institute (IJN) operating theatre at 10.45pm on Wednesday and surgery for heart-donor implantation started at 1.30am, according to a statement issued by IJN.
The boy's heart and lungs were flown into Subang Airport from Ipoh Hospital through the Royal Malaysian Air Force mercy flight.
The IJN transplant team, headed by chief cardiothoracic surgeon Datuk Dr Mohd Azhari Yakub and Heart and Lung Transplant clinical director Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib performed the surgery simultaneously with another double lung transplant on a 39-year-old man suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (lung failure).
Six cardiothoracic surgeons, six anaesthetists, one physician from the Respiratory Research Institute and 30 paramedics were involved in the surgeries.
The whole surgery process lasted more than 10 hours and the recipients were wheeled out of the operation theatre to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at 9.05am yesterday.
Both recipients remain in critical condition.
Hui Yi currently requires temporary mechanical support for the new heart to stabilise.
She has been carrying a mechanical heart assist device and has waited for a donor heart for more than a year. Her mother Dina Bato Sam Bua, 46, has been steadfastly by her side since she was warded at IJN.
Asked how long Hui Yi will be at the ICU, IJN CEO Mohd Radzif Mohd Yunus said it would depend on her condition.
“Let’s all pray for her recovery,” he said.
Dina and her husband Tee Ah Soon, 51, were not ready for comments, he said.
No further information was available about the 39-year-old man except that he had waited for lung transplant for eight months.
To date, IJN has performed 18 heart transplants since 1997 and three lung transplants since 2005. There are 13 more patients needing heart and lung transplants on the waiting list.
In Ipoh, the father of the donor said he might have lost his son but he felt that he had gained a foster daughter, HAH FOONG LIAN reports.
The man, who wants to remain anonymous, said he felt happy when he received a telephone call from a doctor telling him that his son’s heart had been successfully transplanted to Hui Yi.
“Although I have lost a son, I now feel like I have a foster daughter,” he said.
The donor’s father also expressed surprised that the press knew the family’s whereabouts.
He said the family did not ask for money or any word of thanks.
The only condition he had asked of the hospital was to not reveal the identity of his son.
On why he agreed for his son to be an organ donor, he said: “My son was God’s gift to me. Now, it is time to return the gift to God.”
Source: The Star Online
Related Story: Hui Yi successfully undergoes heart ops
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