Tiny from Adana Found Life in Izmir

Melek Özcan, 2.5-year-old Melek Özcan, who was waiting for an organ at Dokuz Eylül University Hospital Cardiovascular Surgery Service due to congenital heart muscle deterioration and failure, was kept alive with the heart of a 6-year-old boy who died of brain death in Adana.

At the press conference held at DEU Hospital, Chief Physician Prof. Dr. Mehmet Refik Mas stated that Prof. Dr. Öztekin Oto and his team performed a successful transplant for little Melek on Thursday evening, 28 February, and said: "We performed heart transplantation to Melek Özcan last night around 21.30 p.m. This patient was actually the patient to whom we implanted an artificial heart two years ago when she was only 7 kg with a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy. We were able to keep her alive for two years with this artificial heart. Unfortunately, no organ was found in the meantime. With this organ found in Adana, we removed the artificial heart and transplanted the new heart instead. It was an extremely difficult operation, but we had no problems. Today, there is 170 cc total haemorrhage and the patient is awake and disconnected from the artificial respiration device. After this, the process of adjusting the drugs to stabilise the infection and tissue rejection, which is the usual treatment process in heart transplant patients, begins."

Expressing that Melek's health condition is very good, Prof. Oto stated that Melek's previous artificial heart implantation strengthened the operation. Prof. Oto gave the following information about the surgery: "It was one of the few artificial heart interventions in Europe when she was normally 7 kilograms. We had to change the units of the external device of the artificial heart twice in the last two years due to clots. In the last days, it was at the stage of being a problem. We can say that this heart was found at the last stage. In terms of age, the child has grown from 7kg to 12kg in 2 years. A patient with adhesions. Technically, of course, everything is a few units more difficult than in adults. Melek was the smallest patient to receive an artificial heart in Turkey. Because the 70 cc device of that size was brought to Turkey for the first time by the company. When the child grew up, we replaced the unit with a larger unit. This case is one of the smallest heart transplants. In 1998, we had performed a heart-lung transplant on a 6-year-old child for the first time in Turkey at Dokuz Eylül University."

Giving information about Melek's health status, Oto said, "It has not even been a day since Melek's transplantation and she has left the artificial respiration device and is awake, her kidney functions are fine. She does not receive any significant heart support. During the whole operation, 1.5 units of blood were used."

Mentioning that the facilities of the Ministry of Health are at a high level, Oto explained the transplantation process as follows: "The Ministry of Health has an excellent organisation in finding the donor and delivering the organ to us. It was coordinated by Pakize İstan, Organ Transplant Coordinator of our hospital. The Ministry of Health has a jet plane. Prof. Dr Erdem Silistreli and one of our assistants went to Adana to receive the organ. They took the liver from there in coordination with the kidney and came back. As soon as it was learnt that the organ was intact and they boarded the plane, we started to open Melek's chest on the table. We prepared it in a tight time until the plane landed. As soon as she arrived here, we started the transplant. 90 minutes ended the transplant."

Evaluating the statistics on life chances after heart transplantation, Oto continued his words as follows "According to statistics, blood group compatibility is sufficient in heart transplants. We know that heart transplant results are better in children. There is a known statistic of 80 per cent chance of survival for 10 years and 70 per cent chance of survival for 20 years in heart transplantation. We have a patient who works as a labourer. We have a patient who had cancer after transplantation and defeated cancer in the 10th year and is currently alive. Therefore, a good quality of life awaits Melek. With an artificial heart, there is definitely no ideal quality of life connected to the machine."

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