Children’s heart transplants have been made in Finland for over 30 years and they are the world’s best
Helmi Silvennoinen looked like a healthy baby, but the symptoms started quickly. A new heart was found when the pearl was eight months old. After that, it started to happen quickly.
The abstract is made by artificial intelligence and checked by man.
7-year-old Helmi Silvennoinen got a new heart at the age of eight months in 2018.
In Finland, 118 heart transplants for children have been carried out and the results are at the top of the world.
Tom Håkans, 36, got a new heart among the first Finnish children in 1991.
After transplantation, patients need lifelong medication and monitoring.
Researchers are developing new methods for monitoring the transplant and extending life.
MAali! Football match in the yard of a Kulukkan detached house ends with a 7-year-old Hungarian Pearl Silvennoinen for a crushing win.
Mother Päivi Silvennoinen Cheers in the audience. Opponent, father Lauri Silvennoinen All you can do is confess your defeat.
The pearl is terribly ventilated like a small miracle.
That’s what he is: Finland’s second youngest heart rate transfer patient ever.
Helmi got a new heart at the age of eight months in 2018, just less than three months older than the youngest heart transfer patient in Finland.
In total, 118 heart transplants have been made in Finland.
Among the first to be Tom Håkans36-year-old singer and songwriter. He was transmitted in 1991. He was the youngest in the Nordic countries, two years and eight months in the Nordic countries.
Lauri Silvennoinen helps pearls find the camera in his room.
VAikka’s heart transplants are at the top of the world in Finland, doctors do not want to settle for it.
« It is no longer essential whether a person is alive, but how to live a full life. Timo Jahnukainen.
Life with a new heart means for both pearls and Tom Håkans the life -long medication and follow -up.
Researchers are currently developing more and more advanced methods for monitoring the transmission of the transmission in order to further guide treatment. In addition, an extensive research project is launching in Finland to explore how the life of heart transplantation could be extended, says a professor of pediatric cardiology, chief physician Tiina Ojala.
Big Brother Kaapo, 14, makes a 7-year-old pearls a snack.
BElmi Silvennoinen Born in February 2018. A sweet, healthy baby girl!
After a couple of months, parents began to worry because the baby was silent and did not want to eat.
On May Day, Helm’s space worsened so that parents first took him to a private pediatrician and then to HUS’s emergency room.
At that time the pearl was sent home, but the next day I had to go to the emergency room again. Imaging studies revealed a large heart shadow and dilated cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart.
The heart pumped so poorly that the pearl was immediately rushed to the intensive care unit. The doctor could not give a promise of tomorrow.
« The shock was huge. Just a couple of days earlier, we had been happy with the baby we considered healthy. Now Helmi fought for her life, » says Päivi Silvennoinen.
Helm’s condition waved. He was treated in the intensive care unit and in the children’s heart department. The heart -supported heart worked at 20 %.
In June, the doctor said the only treatment was a new heart.
The anticipation began.
Parents have remembered the 7-year-old big brother at the time Cable Question on the sauna boards: Where does Helm’s new heart come from?
After hearing that the heart would come from the donor, that is, a dying child, Kaapo remained quiet. In the end, he said, « I hope Helmi gets it. »
In mid -October, the pearl was still in the heart support pump. Päivi Silvennoinen was at Helm’s hospital when an anesthetist came to her and urged me to sit: the heart had been found and would be moved the next night.
« The doctor did not tell where the heart came from and why. The top thing was gratitude that Helmi got a chance, » Silvennoinen says.
TImo Jahnukainen knows more about where the transfers come from. The Nordic countries and Estonia have developed a common system, Scandiatransplant, which is Jahnukainen’s « best, if not the best » worldwide.
The system operates so that information about the donor’s identity is very rare.
On average, patients have to wait 70-80 days for heart transition, but the less the patient, the harder it is to find the right heart. « Some have had to wait almost a year, » Jahnukainen says.
When information about a suitable transplant comes, a group of doctors leave Meilahti to pick up it, usually by private airplane.
The hurry is severe as the graft should not be loose for more than six hours of blood circulation.
The camera was found. The pearl is ready to grab a picture of the guest.
KIIR is also in a patient who is often waiting for a new heart in intensive care.
Less than side of the patients have a structural heart failure. About 60 % have myocardial disease, which often tends to be hereditary.
After surgery, the first month is the most critical.
The recipient’s body repels foreign tissue. In the case of a very small patient, the graft may also be too large. Then the chest can be left open for a few days.
The good news is that no patients have died in the new children’s hospital for five years, even though almost thirty heart transplants have been carried out during this time. The prognosis for pediatric patients is good. Ten years after the heart transplant, 75 % are alive.
However, a heart transplant patient will never completely « improve »: the rest of life is balancing with anti -preventive drugs.
Medicines impair the body’s defense capacity. For example, certain vaccinations cannot be taken.
Medicines can increase blood pressure and cholesterol levels and increase the risk of developing various infectious diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.
Patients are followed every year at HUS Group Hospital in Meilahti.
YA significant step forward is that the well -being of the transfer of the transfer can now be accurately monitored not only by blood tests but also by imaging, says Ojala, who leads the research team.
Previously, the child’s heart condition after the heart transplant was followed by taking biopsies directly from the heart.
“Nowadays, in children, all of this is much easier and lighter,” says Ojala.
The state of the heart can be estimated by computed tomography, which is a quick method or magnetic resonance imaging. Anesthesia is only needed for children under six years.
Tom Håkans, who lives in Mustasaari, is a songwriter and singer.
SEvery year, Euranta visits to Helsinki also visits Tom Håkans, who today has the longest experience in life with Siira in Finland.
« My heart is doing well, » Håkans tells about his home from his home in the Ostrobothnian Mustasaari Island.
Famous doctors have become important people to him.
He says he is doing well today, even though strong drugs cause stomach problems.
When Håkans was born in November 1988, he was considered completely healthy.
However, at the age of one, the baby became powerless. The cause was a congenital heart failure, a restful cardiomyopathy.
At that time, a heart transplant for such a small child had not been made in any Nordic country.
Håkans’ parents were considering taking the baby to the United States. However, the surgery would have cost a huge amount and it was not clear whether the baby would have survived the air trip.
After a painful wait, the phone finally played at Håkans’ home on July night in 1991.
Tom Håkans got a new heart when he was two years and eight months old. Picture of Tom Håkans’ home album.
A few hours later, Tom was already on an ambulance aircraft on his way to Helsinki.
He was then two years and eight months old.
The surgery went well. After spending ten days in intensive care and a couple of months in the hospital he got home.
Today, Håkans visits Helsinki once a year. He also visits Vaasa Central Hospital every three months.
BÅkans is on an invalidity pension. He was also diagnosed with back growth disorder at school, which has led him to be cut twice.
However, health problems do not prevent Håkans from being active in the music industry: he writes songs, organizes concerts and dances, and performs himself.
One of his most famous songs is that Funnet Hjäta – found a heart that has a message that life is not a matter of course.
« You should not stay in life or worry about the future, but be happy with what is now, » says Päivi Silvennoinen. Lauri, Helmi and Päivi Silvennoinen on the home sofa in Klaukkala.
Svoting Hospital visits are also part of the everyday life of the Silvennoinen family.
Helmi expresses his opinion on hospital visits by turning down and grinning the thumb.
Soon, however, Helmi will rush into his play.
Parents will be wondering.
Although Helm’s illness manifests itself in many ways and all the effects of the drugs cannot be predicted, the family has learned one thing, trust.
« Whatever comes, it is treated – or at least trying to take care of. »
