Folks;
I've been tied up very much lately with a family problem.
My 3 year old niece has had an illness that damaged her heart.
It has been every parent's nightmare a child in critical condition.
On February 16 she was put on life support after cardiac arrest at the emergency room. We were lucky that she was at the University of Michigan Medical Center so that she could be both revived and put on an ECMO support device. (UofM pioneered that device.) It was touch and go for almost three weeks. She had open heart surgery on her third birthday that has brought her back to a semblance of health. She is at a point now that she can receive a heart transplant. Until the hospital put a non-FDA approved device to help her heart work since it is totally gone there was no hope.
She has been on three forms of life support now.
1) Regular Ventilator.
2) ECMO device to oxygenate her blood.
3) VAD (Berlin Heart) after open heart surgery.
The doctors tell us that a heart transplant for someone so young could take as much as a year. This brings me to a difficult request.
Please please PLEASE encourage any parent who has a child that is terminally ill to donate organs. An adult organ donor will not work on a child. There are far too many children on the transplant list that just die long before they should because of the lack of available donor organs. I know it is difficult to think of a child as a donor but that is what is needed. My niece is close to the top of the donor needs list but still there are many children that are in need. I want to start an organization to publicize this need.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to help children in need like this?
http://www.int2.tv/maddie
Greg
Children's Organ Transplants
I second Ian's post
Hang in there. Have you asked the staff about available resources? This looked to be an informational site: http://www.cota.org with links to other organizations.
binx
binx
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