Tanesha can finally look forward to making memories after transplant
THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Tanesha Ives is enjoying her school holidays with activities at a holiday club in town and a family holiday to Skegness to look forward to later this month.
It’s all the more special because Tanesha has spent much of her life in and out of hospital after undergoing open heart surgery at just five weeks old.
Tanesha was born with complete atrioventricular septal defect, meaning there was a hole between the top and bottom chambers in her heart and there is a shared valve in the middle, rather than two separate ones.
When she was 18 months old, she suffered a complete heart block – where the heart’s natural pacemaker can’t regulate the heartbeat itself – and had a pacemaker fitted.
Over the course of her young life, Tanesha has had four pacemakers fitted – including one in 2015 where she stopped breathing in her sleep.
In 2020 Tanesha’s condition deteriorated and it was found that her heart was enlarged which led to her going onto the heart transplant list.
Brave Tanesha, who has been nominated for a Proud of Barnsley in the Triumph over Adversity category, underwent a successful transplant in October 2021 and was able to spend Christmas at home with her Mum Amanda Bell and her younger sister Ashante.
Amanda, of Park Road, said: “Tanesha’s condition is stable, she still suffers some pain and has a medical appointment every month but she is increasing the time she spends at Horizon Community College from September and we are able to get out and make memories.
“We are so grateful to the donor family every day for the extra memories we can make together and they are in my thoughts every day.”
“We are so grateful to the donor family every day for the extra memories we can make together and they are in my thoughts every day.”