Heart Donor Tissue
January 14, 2009 by jody
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Matthew a healthy three year old toddler, from Takapuna, New Zealand has already had two open heart surgeries. If he had been born two years earlier the doctors could not have saved him.
An eight hour procedure called Norwood/Rastelli was performed on Matthew when he was five days old. In the procedure his right ventricle and aorta were patched by using human and animal tissue (cow and pig).
Matthew’s mother said "I was so scared. I’ll never forget hearing my husband on the other end of the phone telling me the news.
"Basically his heart was a mess. It was like a jigsaw puzzle that hadn’t been put together properly and with some of the vital pieces missing."
You will find more of Matthew’s story, by clicking on his name Matthew.
Picture by BEN WATSON/North Shore Times.
