Girl gets transplant after heart-lung machine keeps her alive for six days

Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/25 19:35:31

TIANJIN, May 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Doctors conduct a heart surgery for a child at Teda International Cardiovascular Hospital in north China's Tianjin Municipality, May 25, 2016. Dozens of CHD children from Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi got heart surgeries for free at the hospital with the help of charity programs. Since 2004, the hospital has treated 8,605 CHD children across the country. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)



A 10-year-old girl in Shanghai was kept alive for six days on a heart and lung machine, before receiving a heart transplant.

The girl had been rushed to a local hospital where doctors discovered she suffered from a serious heart disease that is nearly fatal, a news site eastday.com reported on Monday.

Within a few hours, her symptoms became more severe and her heart stopped.

To keep her alive, the hospital put her on an external life-support system known as an ECMO, which oxygenated and cleaned her blood.  It was a temporary measure in the hope that a donor heart would be found. 

On June 4, after being kept alive by the ECMO for six days, a healthy, matching heart became available.  

Doctors flew to North China's Tianjin Municipality to pick up the donor heart and returned to Shanghai within three hours.

Since her transplant operation, the girl has regained some of her strength. She will have to take anti-rejection drugs and is currently receiving therapy and psychological counseling.

Despite a growing number of donations in recent years following the organ transplant reform, China's organ donation rate remains one of the lowest in the world. As of July 2018, more than 493,000 people have registered as donors, according to data from the China Organ Donation Administrative Center.

Global Times



Posted in: CHINA

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