Children are waiting for a heart transplant at the University Clinical Center in Warsaw. Connected to an artificial chamber, they can only wait for an organ from a deceased donor – a heart that will fit. There are more and more transplants in the clinic, but the needs are great.
Santa Claus has already visited the Cardiac Surgery Clinic of the Medical University of Warsaw, but he still doesn't have the most important gift – two-year-old Santa Claus has been waiting for a new heart for over a year.
– His condition deteriorated so much that it was life-threatening, so he had to have an artificial heart chamber inserted – says Maja Węgierska, Mikołaj's mother.
However, Santa's chamber cannot work indefinitely, it must eventually be replaced with a normal heart, such as the one received by Peter lying in the room next to Santa. Piotruś received this most expensive gift the day after St. Nicholas Day. – He feels good, he is getting better and he is recovering – says Martyna Sosnowska, Piotruś's mother. – Piotruś was luckier – he adds.
Great mobilization before the holidays. Actions for people in need throughout PolandMarta Kolbus/Fakty po Południu TVN24
This happiness consisted in the fact that the heart from the deceased donor was of Peter's size and weight: too big for Nicholas lying next to him. A teenager is waiting for a larger heart than the boys need, also connected to an artificial heart chamber, which she pushes in a wheelchair. He is waiting for his and Professor Mariusz Kuśmierczyk's wishes to be fulfilled.
– I would like to wish them to enter the new year with new hearts, because there are still a few days left. There is no time off for us, so if we receive a report, there are no days off, we just perform transplants. And this is our dream – says prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk, head of the Department of Heart, Thoracic and Transplant Surgery at the Medical University of Warsaw.
Numbers that fill us with hope
This year alone, the University Clinical Center in Warsaw managed to transplant 32 hearts. Last year – 24.
– This is a very large number that exceeded even my imagination, because I could not imagine that within two years this team – both pediatric and adult – would be able to perform so many heart transplants, including 11 heart transplants in children. This year, seven single-ventricular heart transplants. This is really a very good result – sums up Mariusz Kuśmierczyk.
So we save more and more seriously ill children. In the last two years, the number of heart transplants in children has increased by 150 percent. These are numbers that also give hope to Mikołaj's relatives, because the whole family is waiting for this transplant.
– I change places with my husband every 24 hours, so it is also a rest for me and for him. And I have an older son who is also here with us. And there's grandma. So we are all here together all year round, says Maja Węgierska.