A teenage girl who received a heart transplant who died two years ago’Vigorous exercise is OK’

Photo = The Sunday Times website
-A British teenage girl who received a’dead heart’ transplant two years ago is growing up healthy.

According to a report on the 21st (local time) of’The Sunday Times’ in the UK, a girl named Anna Hadley, 16, who lives in Worcester, UK, had a heart transplant in February 2019, two years ago.

At the time, Hadley waited for a heart donor for about two years after being judged for a limited time due to heart disease. Hadley, who eventually found the donor, is in a healthy state enough to digest hockey, a vigorous exercise, two years after undergoing surgery.

Hadley’s surgery was a so-called’dead heart’. Normally, heart transplant surgery is performed in the presence of a donor with a brain-dead condition, but medical staff from the UK National Health Service (NHS) succeeded in transplanting the heart of a donor (DCD) with a stopped heartbeat into Hadley. Due to technology limitations, the hearts of DCD donors were not considered as organs for heart transplantation. However, since the development of special medical equipment (OCS), it has become possible to keep the heart intact from the time it is detached from the donor’s body until it is implanted into the patient. Hadley is the first, and since Hadley, five teens have found new life by receiving heart transplants with this technology.

Dr. John Forsyth of NHS said, “People who were unable to donate heart in the past can participate in donation. This new technology will save lives both at home and around the world.”

Chi-Hoon Song, reporter of Donga.com [email protected]