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Transplant baby
turns 18 | |
The first baby in Britain to survive a heart transplant celebrated her
18th birthday yesterday.
Kaylee Davidson was five months old when she received a new heart
during a pioneering operation at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon
Tyne, in 1987.
Now fit and healthy, she studies performing arts at a college in
Sunderland and is in training to represent Britain at the World Transplant
Games in Canada this summer.
Miss Davidson, who admitted that she was "looking forward to my first
legal drink", will be the guest of
honour tomorrow at a charity ball which is being held to
mark her coming of age.
"I am living proof that people can make a difference by becoming an
organ donor," she said. "I was only five months old when I had my
transplant, just a tiny baby. I wasn't given much chance, but the surgeons
were amazing and I was lucky enough to grow stronger and stronger."
Miss Davidson, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, had cardiomyopathy, a viral condition which
destroys the heart muscle. She would have died without the transplant.
Her mother, Carol Davidson, 37, yesterday recalled that for the first
few weeks of her daughter's life all had seemed normal, until one evening,
when she suddenly had breathing difficulties. A GP suggested that Kaylee was
suffering from a bad cold, but within 24 hours her lips turned blue. She
was admitted to hospital and placed on a life-support machine.
Her mother, a schools inspector, said: "My baby's heart was ruined and
the doctors said she would die without a transplant."
Until then, there had been no successful heart transplants on babies in
Europe. The two attempted in Britain had both
failed.
(Agencies) |
4月28日,英国首例接受心脏移植手术并成功存活的婴儿庆祝了她的18岁生日。
1987年,凯莉·戴维森在泰恩河畔纽卡斯尔的弗里曼医院接受了一次开创性的手术,植入了一颗新的心脏,当时她才五个月大。
现在健康结实的她在森德兰的一所大学研习表演艺术,而且正在参加体育训练,准备代表英国参加今天夏天即将在加拿大举行的“世界移植运动会”。
戴维森小姐承认她曾经“渴望获得第一次合法饮酒权”,明天她将参加一场为庆祝她成年而举行的慈善舞会,并担任主宾。
“我就是一个活生生的证据——人们能够通过捐赠器官而使世界有所不同。我接受器官移植手术时才五个月大,只是一个很小的婴孩而已。当时我存活的机会并不大,但主刀的外科医生实在太棒了,我终于幸运地活了下来,并变得越来越强壮。”她说。
来自英国泰恩威尔郡华盛顿市的戴维森小姐患有原发性心肌症,这种疾病是由破坏心肌的过滤性毒菌引起的。如果不做心脏移植手术,她就会死去。
她的母亲,37岁的卡罗尔·戴维森昨天回忆说,女儿刚出生的几周一切看上去都很正常,直到一天晚上,小凯莉突然出现呼吸困难。一位全科医师推断凯莉患了严重的感冒,但在24小时内,她的嘴唇开始发青。于是凯莉被紧急送进医院,并放在一个呼吸机上。
戴维森的母亲担任多所学校的督学长,她说:“我孩子的心脏已经彻底不行了,医生说如果不做心脏移植手术她就活不成了。”
在那次手术之前,欧洲尚未出现一例成功的婴儿心脏移植手术。英国仅有的两次尝试均以失败而告终。
(中国日报网站译) |