Michał and the doctors decided to fight again and this time they succeeded. Once, Michał was unable to put on his shoes himself. Now his condition is much better. A month after the second heart transplant, Michał is in such good shape that doctors allowed him to meet journalists.
The thirteen-year-old can't wait to go home. – I will turn on the computer, play, open the cookbook and start cooking – says Michał Kowalewski, the hero of the reportage.
– Mom won't do anything for Christmas. When Michał enters the kitchen, I have to leave it – admits Katarzyna Kowalewska, Michał's mother. – Because where there are six cooks, there is nothing to eat – Michał himself echoes her.
“It's like replacing the engine in a baby by putting in a Mercedes engine.”
More than two years ago, the boy was diagnosed with serious heart defects. The only solution was a transplant. The operation was successful, but after a few months the young body began to reject the transplanted organ.
– I saw Michał's tiredness, I had to put on his shoes because he was so tired. He didn't have the strength to do anything. Now when they called that there was a heart again, I was ready to fly here to Zabrze, just to have that heart – says the boy's mother. The operation was more difficult than the first one. It lasted a few hours longer. Surgeons had to deal with old scars and anatomical changes.
A successful procedure is only the first step towards a normal life. – It's like replacing the engine in a baby by putting in a Mercedes engine, or the other way around. It all needs to be set up so that it works well, so that the patient benefits from it and is as satisfied as possible. Therefore, it requires frequent check-ups and administration of immunosuppressive drugs – explains Dr. Arkadiusz Wierzyk, a pediatric cardiologist from the Silesian Center for Heart Diseases in Zabrze. They prevent transplant rejection, but may damage other organs. The patient's psyche is important. Stress increases the risk of transplant rejection.
Experimental treatments for seniors with heart disease. “There are more and more of these patients”Marek Nowicki/Fakty TVN
Average life expectancy with a new heart
– Michał and his mother had already had some experiences with each other, which on the one hand was positive, but on the other hand not necessarily, because they knew what hardship awaited them – says Dr. Katarzyna Rojewska, a clinical psychologist from the Silesian Disease Center in Zabrze. The average lifespan with a new heart is twenty years. That is why replantation, or repeated transplantation, is so important. Especially for children. – We are developing a new field in medicine, which is especially important for children. Because if it is a person who already has a short life ahead of them, then the twenty years we give them is a lot, but if we give twenty years to a child, it is not enough – says Dr. Szymon Pawlak, a cardiologist and transplantologist from the Silesian Center for Diseases. Hearts in Zabrze. Michał is the second child in Poland to undergo such a procedure.
This could be a breakthrough in transplantology. The first such transplant in the worldJustyna Kazimierczak/Fakty o Świecie TVN24 BiS
SEE ALSO: Doctors from Krakow rebuilt the heart of a 1.5-year-old boy. Operation like “moon landing”
Michael was born again, not for the second time, but for the third time. After a serious surgery and a month in the hospital, he goes home with a real chance for a long and active life.
Main photo source: TVN24