Durban - Heart transplant operations have come of age in KwaZulu-Natal.
Twenty-one years ago, the first heart transplant was carried out at Entabeni Hospital when Hans Juri Moolman, 43, of Malvern, who was so sick he had just a month to live, received a donor heart from a 23-year-old accident victim. Unfortunately, he did not survive.
Since his historic operation, more than 130 other patients have received life-saving transplants - including heart and double lung transplants, and on Friday, 11 of them gathered at the Busamed Gateway Private Hospital in uMhlanga, where the operations are now performed, to celebrate the milestone.
Two patients who had heart and double lung transplants - Tina Beckbessinger and Matthew Legemaate - were among the guests.
Beckbessinger had her life-changing operation in 2011.
Another guest, Praveena Vather, got her second chance to live 19 years ago and went on to have a daughter, Netanya, now 15. Vather, who attended the gathering with her husband, Rajesh, is the longest surviving KZN transplant patient.
At the heart of the transplant operations was cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Robbie Kleinloog, who heads the transplant team, and who said a celebration was always about thanking and thinking of those who had made it all possible.
“You have to think about the donor families and how difficult it must have been for them to make that decision. You have to thank the patients for taking their pills so regularly.”
“The transplant is one small part of it and you have to thank all those involved in how the patients got to the operation,” he said, particularly mentioning cardiologist Dr David Gillmer.
A transplant was one of the most rewarding parts of the job and the most important role was that of the transplant co-ordinator, Cindy Goldie - who had to liaise with the donor family - he said. “It must be difficult to approach a family. Credit goes to Cindy and her network,” he said.
Kleinloog showed the gathering a gold medal that one of his heart patients, Matthew Moffatt, had won for swimming at the World Transplant Games in 2016.
Moffatt, who had his heart transplant when he was 15, about 17 years ago, had visited him at the hospital earlier this year, saying that he wanted the surgeon to have his medal.
He recalled that he had been preparing to put a mechanical heart into the schoolboy to buy him some time, but that a human donor heart had become available on the same day.
Kleinloog said he never gave up hope of getting donor hearts for his patients.
People should make decisions about being an organ donor while they were healthy and living, he said. Knowing what they wanted to make it easier for their families when confronted with having to make a decision about donation.
Meanwhile, Matthew Legemaate, who received his heart and double lung transplant in November, has continued with his drive to get 50 000 extra names on the organ and tissue foundation register. With 24 880 names added, he has almost reached the halfway mark. (Visit hero777.co.za and www.odf.org.za)