KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Geek Hoon, 41, can finally lead a normal life now after a successful heart transplant at the National Heart Institute (IJN) yesterday. A heart, kept in a special storage box, was flown in by a Royal Malaysian Navy's Fennec helicopter from Ipoh Hospital to IJN on Tuesday. Since November 2008, Tan has been surviving by using a mechanical heart assist device. Tan was lucky to be one of two IJN patients who survived more than a year, supported by the device.

IJN chief cardiothoracic surgeon Datuk Dr Mohd Azhari Yakub performed the seven-hour surgery. It is learnt that the heart could only last for four hours in the box. It arrived within 35 minutes from Ipoh. Dr Azhari said the patient was wheeled into the operating theatre at 1.30pm to remove the heart assist device and wheeled out to the Intensive Care Unit at 8.30pm. "It was a successful surgery. Now the patient is awake and fully conscious. I would like to thank the family of the donor for making this precious gift possible and the RMN helicopter squad for providing transport."

Since 1997, IJN has performed 20 heart transplants on 19 patients and currently eight more patients are on the waiting list.

by Malay Mail 10th December 2009