Mum Beats Odds With New Heart

08 September 2009Kim Leslie had a broken heart. But it was the kind of broken heart most women aged 23 never expect to get.

In April 1997, Ms Leslie had been ill with a persistent flu.

After visiting her doctor in Blenheim and not getting any relief from antibiotics, she went back three days later to another doctor.

"He was feeling my ankles and listening in odd places and I thought `gosh, gosh you're a bit peculiar'," Ms Leslie said. "And then he said `I think you have heart failure' ... I'm like, `what's that'?"

Tests at Wairau Hospital in Blenheim later confirmed the diagnosis. She had dilated cardiomyopathy an enlarged weakened heart muscle. The flu-like virus had caused serious damage beyond belief.

"They basically said, `if it doesn't repair itself then you're going to need a heart transplant'." Ms Leslie was sent home to rest for six weeks but a followup appointmentshowed her heart had deteriorated further.

In August she was sent to Auckland's Green Lane Hospital to find out whether she qualified for a heart transplant. She did, but it was then a matter of waiting for a donor.

Ms Leslie was told it could take a while and was scheduled for a checkup in six months and sent home.

It was a devastating time but she kept optimistic through her faith in God. "I remember thinking, `if this is the journey; this is the journey'."

Miraculously, she received a phone call at home three days later informing her they had found a donor. Ms Leslie was rushed to Auckland but was conscious not to get her hopes too high in case it was a false alarm.

But it was the real deal and hours later she had a new heart.

The next stage in her journey had begun a life of immuno-suppression drugs and invasive tests, but at least it was a life, she said.

In November, Ms Leslie returned to Blenheim.

"I was feeling great."

She and her husband decided to buy their first home. A year later they fell in love with a lifestyle property in Otautau, Western Southland. Five years later things were still going well but Ms Leslie wanted more in life children.

However, she was advised not to because of the associated risks. "They always said, just don't go there."

But she did. She had to undergo a psychological assessment and tests. Her pregnancy was closely monitored by the Green Lane transplant team and at 32 weeks she was admitted to hospital for even closer observation. Baby Ruben came along by caesarean section days later; tiny and three weeks early but healthy.

Her second child, Katie, was born three years later, also healthy. Unfortunately, the children's father and Ms Leslie broke up three months into the pregnancy. She said it was a stressful time, but the young mum got through with support from family and the Otautau community.

Now 35, she was celebrating the 12th anniversary of her heart transplant and the exciting goals she had to look forward to.

Ms Leslie would have her first exhibition next month, was in training to walk the 10-kilometre walk in the Southland Marathon in November and hoped to expand her passion for gardening through a landscape architecture course at the Southern Institute of Technology.

"You make sure every day you make the most of it."

Organ Donation New Zealand heart and lung transplant co-ordinator Helen Gibbs said about 65 per cent of patients lived for 11 years or more. Ms Leslie was one of a few female heart recipients in New Zealand to have children. Not only were there the effects the drugs could have on the foetus to consider but also the long-term life expectancy and the potential of the children losing their mother early in life, she said. Ms Leslie had done really well to reach 12 years.

"She's fantastic, isn't she."

Dunedin-based cardiologist Dr Michael Williams said Ms Leslie was doing well and this had been helped by her complying with her treatment since her transplant.

By Amy Milne - The Southland Times