12mths ago I’d had a heart op so this year Xmas really Maters
Brave mum Sarah on her life- saving cardiac device
SURGERY
A BRAVE mum has told how her “mechanical heart” has saved Christmas.
This time last year Sarah Mccabe was having major surgery following heart failure.
The 41- year old has heaped praise on the staff at the Mater Hospital in Dublin who saved her life last Christmas and for keeping her heart going with a special mechanical pump.
Sarah’s ordeal began with a throat infection at 19 that turned almost fatal when it travelled to her heart.
She told the Irish Mirror : “It was like a virus that went into my heart, I had symptoms of a heart attack, I was in ICU for five days.
“They followed me up for a year and I made full recovery.”
Sarah went on to have a daughter Kate but four years ago following a routine ECG that came back abnormal, she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.
S h e was t ol d h er h ear t would eventually fail and the only way to save her was through a transplant.
Sarah explained: “I have a device that pumps blood to the main aorta of the heart and then it circulates to the rest of the body.
MACHINE
“This machine does the work for the heart but the longest time recorded was a person who had it for seven years, it’s mainly used as a bridge to transplant.
“I couldn’t ask for a better team in the Mater, they’re like family to me, they’ll do everything in their power to keep me well and to get me a transplant, to be there for Kate.
“The longer I stay on the machine is for the best for now as my 11- year- old daughter Kate is heading to adulthood, if she was to lose me she won’t be at an age where she needs me as much by then.
“Kate knows that I need a transplant, but we’re not thinking about that at all, this time l ast year I was only after surgery, so Christmas is the be all and end all for us.”
A number of Irish stars are supporting the Mater Foundation’s Words of Light campaign, which aims to bring hope, k i ndn e s s a nd l o v e t o e v e r y on e separated from their loved ones this Christmas.
T h e m e s s a g e s w e r e displayed alongside those f r om members of t h e public who may be apart from their loved ones this Christmas.
Anyone can s end their Words of Light o v e r t h e 1 9 - d a y campaign via www. wordsoflight. ie.