Northside People East
Wednesday 20 June 2012
By AoibhinnTwomey
This is courageous little Northside girl who survived on an artificial heart machine in a London children’s hospital before receiving a lifesaving transplant.
Holly Keogh (3), who was suffering with end-stage heart failure, spent six months attached to a ‘Berlin Heart’ in Great Ormond Street Hospital before a positive donor match became available.
Heartbreakingly, the Finglas tot’s world was limited to eight feet of tubes and wires connecting her to the miracle machine, which is the size of a fridge.
At just 10-months old, Holly was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weak and unable to pump blood efficiently.
For the first two years after diagnosis, Holly had regular hospital visits, but otherwise was a healthy and happy little girl.
However, last year she fell gravely ill with heart failure and was flown to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Great Ormond street Hospital (GOSH).
Holly’s condition continued to deteriorate so much that her only chance at survival was being hooked up to the Berlin Heart, which she was attached to six days later.
The Berlin heart is a machine the size of a small chest freezer, which supports the work of the heart and acts as a lifesaving bridging device for children awaiting a transplant.
Holly spent a total of six months attached to the Berlin Heart until her parents, Alan and Lisa, finally got a phone call to say there was a positive donor match.
She was immediately rushed to theatre and seven hours later Holly had a new heart.
According to her delighted and proud mum, it took holly at least 12 days to realize she didn’t have to be attached to the machine anymore.
“She stepped outside the room on her own and said: ‘Mam I’m outside on my own, what do I do?” Lisa explained.
“I said: ‘just keep walking’ and she walked so proudly down to the nurses’ station with her head held high
“She said: ‘look at me, I have no Berlin Heart! I can walk on my own!”.
The toddler is now recovering well from her transplant operation, which was carried out a few months ago.
“We will always be extremely grateful to the staff at the hospital who helped us through the hardest time of our lives, but we will also be eternally grateful to the family of the donor who made that decision to donate their child’s organs,” Lisa stated.
“Not only for saving our little girl’s life, but for saving our entire family too.”
Dr Matthew Fenton, consultant paediatric cardiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said it was possible to transplant a donor heart from a person up to three times the recipient’s body weight.
“So for a one-year old baby who weighs about 10kg, you can use a heart from a 30kg person,” he stated.
“What that means is that it won’t be long before even relatively young children can use adult donors.
“If people wonder why donating as an adult makes a difference to a child in need of an organ, the answer is that it makes a considerable difference.
“Having more adult hearts for older children frees up smaller hearts for younger recipients.”
Holly Keogh’s story was highlighted in a BBC2 documentary about Great Ormond Street last month.