Paula’s news
04/26/2021 5:30 AM, By André Jahnke and Silke Sullivan – Print the article Send email
The waiting time wasn’t easy for the 13-year-old twins
Kilian and Jamie are twins. But that is not the only thing that connects the two. The brothers were very sick. That’s why they recently had a new heart implanted in each of them.
LEIPZIG / CALBE. Play football, ride a bike, go for a walk. This is completely normal for many children.
But Kilian and Jamie couldn’t do that for a long time. Or they had to work very hard for it. Because the 13-year-old twins from the state of Saxony-Anhalt both had a sick heart. The muscle was no longer able to pump enough blood around their bodies.
“Both were doing badly,” says her mother Mareen Schimmel. “They were no longer resilient at all in everyday life. They could no longer climb stairs, walk short distances without having to take a break. “
A donor heart to go on living
It was clear: In order for Kilian and Jamie to go on living, they need a new heart. Such a heart comes from someone who has just died – for example in an accident. Under certain conditions, the heart and other organs can still work afterwards. This person has decided beforehand that if something like this happens to him, he will donate his heart. Or the relatives then decide.
But you often have to wait a long time for such a donor heart. So Kilian and Jamie needed double luck. And they did. With them it took about four months. The waiting time was not easy for the brothers.
“I was hoping they would call me,” says Kilian. “Because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. That the heart doesn’t come in time. ”He was also very worried about his brother.
When the call came in February, he felt very sick. “I was afraid that the operation would not go well.” But most of all he was happy. And Jamie? He too got a new heart, just three days after his brother! That is a sensation, say the doctors.
Like a second birthday
“February 21st and 24th, when they both got their new hearts, is like a second birthday,” says her father Roy Schimmel. Of course there were thoughts about who the hearts belonged to before. “We talked about it,” says Mareen Schimmel. Hearts belonged to children who have died. That also burdened Kilian and Jamie. Two months after the operation, the brothers are physically much better. Kilian says: He is happy that he is now more resilient and can do what he wants.
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