KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — A Malaysian teenage girl in desperate need of a new heart has undergone two transplant operations in a week after her body rejected the first organ, reports said Friday.
Tee Hui Yee, 14, received a heart in a 10-hour operation at the National Heart Institute late Wednesday. The donor was an anonymous 15-year-old boy who had earlier died in a road accident.
Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said Tee had to undergo a second transplant on Friday as her body rejected the first organ, the official Bernama news agency said.
"Her condition is more stable now although still critical ... The government thanks the donor," he was quoted as saying.
Chua said Tee was lucky to have an organ donor available.
In earlier comments, Chua said Tee had been in critical condition after the first operation on Wednesday.
"It was a risky operation and I will not go into details but Tee has waited for a year and now we'll have to wait and see," Chua was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times.
"We are very glad that Tee has finally gotten her heart," he said.
The girl had earlier made tearful pleas through the media for a donor heart while her doctors expressed concern over her deteriorating condition.
"How long more do I have to wait for a heart? I need a donor soon," Tee said according to New Straits Times.
Tee, who was diagnosed with heart failure after suffering a viral infection when she was just two years old, was fitted last year with a mechanical heart -- a device implanted outside her abdomen and connected to her heart.
She had to lug a battery weighing nine-kilograms (20 pounds) to power the mechanical heart, which can last two years.
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