Heart op baby Gabrysia comes home to Horsforth (From Wharfedale Observer)

Heart op baby Gabrysia comes home to Horsforth

4:08pm Monday 3rd August 2009

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A little girl who was given just months to live without a heart transplant has returned home after a successful operation.

Sixteen-month old Gabrysia Filarowski, of Horsforth, received a new heart at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital in July.

And although she was expected to remain in hospital for between five and six weeks she has been making such good progress that she has been allowed home after just three.

Gabrysia, also known as Gabriela, had suffered from a rare heart defect - double inlet right ventricle - from birth and was given just months to live unless a new heart could be found.

In March her status on the transplant list was upped to 'urgent', and her parents launched an appeal to save her life.

She had already undergone heart surgery twice and medics said she would not survive without a trans-plant.

Her parents issued an appeal asking bereaved families to consider donating their own dead children's organs to give a chance of life to youngsters like Gabriela.

In May the little girl was put at the top of the country's transplant list, and Angela and Andrew, her sister Ania, nine, and brother Thomas, 11, waited anxiously for the call.

Last month that call finally came, and she was given a new heart in an eight-hour operation.

Since then she has been making good progress.

In the days following the operation Angela described the change in Gabrysia as a "miracle" and added: "She is doing amazingly well. Everyone is so happy with her."

And she stressed her family's debt of gratitude to the family who gave her daughter the chance of life. She revealed that the family who donated their child's heart had made contact with Newcastle's Freeman Hospital to find out how the operation had gone.

She said: "We are completely indebted to them. As soon as we can get our heads round it we will write a letter to them - and hopefully they will feel strong enough to receive it."

After the operation Angela said: "It is a bit of a rocky road and there are ups and downs. We have to try to keep our feet on the ground really.

"Her new heart is really, really strong, which is just the most amazing part of it all.

"She is just fighting every step of the way, like I thought she would do. She is doing really, really well."

To join the organ donor register, call 0845 60 60 400 or log on to uktransplant.org.uk

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