Timorese mum gets her wish....
December 8, 2009
Born with a hole in the heart, East Timorese toddler Ana Fraga had very little chance of survival when she arrived in Brisbane recently.
But the bubbly 19 month old girl was given new hope after undergoing open heart surgery at the Mater Childrens' Hospital. Ana recovered from three hours of complex surgery to repair a Ventricular Septal Defect - a disease of the heart where a hole exists between the left and right ventricles.
Ana and Maria are ready to return to Timor
Ana's mother, Maria, was tearful as she described the remarkable change in her daughter since the operation. 'There's a big difference now compared to the time she was in Timor and not very well' she said.
'After this big operation and all this treatment she has an appetite to eat and she's now able to have a normal life'.
Maria thanked ROMAC for bringing the pair to Australia so that doctors could perform this life-saving surgery on Ana.
Dr Tom Karl, paediatric surgeon at the Mater Childrens' Hospital, said that most Australian children with similar defects were operated on at a much earlier age. 'We don't see many patients who have survived to Ana's age with this type of defect and are still good surgical candidates, but when we do, most of them are small'.
'We really like to treat VSD in the first three months of life but for various reasons we sometimes see patients later'.
Dr Karl says 'Ana would have died for certain' had she not been discovered by doctors with the 1cm hole in her heart. 'I think she'll grow up now to be a healthy girl' he said. 'Her recovery has been very good'.
Ana has now returned to East Timor.
