Eight-year-old girl recovers after heart transplant – and becomes a donor

A child who has received a heart transplant has also become a donor. Pranathi O’Donovan from Waterford received her new heart after being diagnosed with sudden onset dilated cardiomyopathy.

The eight-year-old underwent the heart transplant procedure at Great Ormond Street hospital in London. But while her heart needed to be replaced, the valves were healthy.

Surgeons saved them and they were transferred to the heart valve bank at London’s Royal Brompton hospital where they can be used in valve replacement or valve reconstruction surgery.

For her family it is a small gesture for a life-saving treatment that they thought she might not live long enough to receive.

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This month it is a year since Pranathi’s transplant, but her parents, Anne-Marie Lally and Ivor O’Donovan are only too aware of her donor’s family. “It’s their anniversary too,” said Ms Lally.

“All we know is that it was a child. We were allowed to write and thank them.

“Our sense is that they knew what a difference it would make. They knew it would save another child and they did. We think of them too.”

Marking national organ donor awareness week this week, Ms Nally said, “We always carried organ donation cards in our house but we always thought that we would be giving. We never thought that we would be receiving.

“We got a diagnosis for Pranathi in September in 2016. By December she was on the heart transplant list and was not to leave hospital again.”

She was being treated in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin when her need for a new heart was confirmed.

“That’s how quickly how things turned for us. But we were very lucky. She’s strong and resilient for all that happened,” Ms Lally said.

Pranathi, who was adopted from India, first came to public attention in February last year when her mother contacted the media over concerns that Air Corps air ambulance support would not be available on a 24-hour basis should a heart become available, as there is only a four-hour transplant window for hearts.

Ten days later she was airlifted by the Air Corps to Great Ormond Street to wait for a new heart. “We felt the risk was too big for her to be in Dublin without 24-hour cover because if she got sick we couldn’t be guaranteed she would get there on time. Now they have a private contract operator to cover the out of hours [period],” Ms Lally said.

But her heart gave up about six days after they arrived at the London hospital.

“She had two strokes. We thought we lost her at least four times. We had given up waiting for a heart – we just didn’t want her to get another stroke. Every day we were petrified she’d get a stroke.

“Her second stroke was relatively catastrophic for us in that she didn’t come round after a particular procedure and we were told she had swelling to the brain. We were given 24 hours’ notice that if she didn’t come round after that she would be completely brain dead.”

But she did come around and then a heart came, “and five days later she said ‘Mammy can I have those chocolate bunnies now’ – the Easter egg bunnies that were there.

“She turned around from being on two heart machines, kidney dialysis, ventilators, respirators and then she got a new heart and within five days she was awake and well.”

They were home in Waterford one month after her heart transplant.

“Pranathi has a happy ending. Everything is perfect. She’s back to school since September last. And dancing and growing and just full of life.

“She is just full of energy, she’s grown at least three or four inches and everything turned out beautifully. And she’s just happy and we’re just so delighted and grateful for all the kindnesses we received along the way.”

Ms Lally and Mr O’Donovan, both lecturers at Waterford Institute of Technology, took a year’s leave of absence to be with their daughter.

“We were very lucky that we were able to be with her all the time. For a lot of children it could be difficult because of separation from siblings and from parents with one parent in hospital and the other at home with other children.”

She adds: “For us it was traumatic but we realised afterwards it was quick.

“We went in in September and we were home in May. There’s a family who were with us in Dublin at that time waiting for a heart transplant. They’re still in Dublin in hospital waiting for a heart transplant a year and a half later.

“That’s the reality. There are people waiting years – at home or in hospital for the gift that Pranathi got – and the life changing impact of it.”

She points out that their daughter had a very poor quality of life. “Immediately after her heart transplant everything came back so quickly, so amazingly, it was fantastic.”

“We’re just very grateful that she has been given this life changing chance.”