Scottdale heart transplant patient: recovery “every day, one day at a time”

The Marshall tax, thirteen, from Scottdale, is the rare person who will celebrate a birthday twice in a year. While his ordinary day is in October, his second commemorates the day he received a new heart – which gave him hope for a full life.

The tax, suffering from a congenital heart defect, received a heart transplant at the UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh on January 20.

“We are looking forward to celebrating the” birthday of the heart “at this time every year from now,” said his mother, Molly Tax.

Marshall, a seventh -grade student at Southmoreland Middle School, said last week that he is feeling better, but is not quite normal.

“I know I will arrive soon. The whole experience in the hospital was difficult and traumatic, Bruh, ”said Marshall, using a popular term of slang, through E -Email. “But there were cute people who helped me there,” he told his monthly experience at the Children’s Hospital.

Marshall has been at home for two weeks, but regularly returns to UPMC Children for doctor appointments to test his body and follow his progress. He goes to clinics and physical therapy sessions, his mother said.

“He will need a life of specialized care, even after resuming his daily day” with school, family and other activities, “said Fee.

Medical research gives hope that Marshall will prosper and resume their normal activities. The survival rate of the pediatric heart transplant has an average of 92% for the first year and almost 97% for the age of Marshall, said Katelyn Metz, a spokesman for the Center for Pittsburgh’s body recovery.

“We are just taking every day at some point and we offer him space to adapt at his pace,” said Fee. “We look forward to the green light for him to travel long distances, so that he can go to visit all the places where his family lives, which he has never been able to see.”

Congenital heart defect

Marshall had to do with heart problems Since she was born in October 2011 With hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which there are only two, rather than four heart rooms. An ultrasound during the prenatal screening of his mother has established that he has a cardiac defect, said Dr. Brian Feingold, who is Marshall’s pediatric cardiologist.

When he was born, Marshall left the delivery room in a cardiology unit at the Children’s Hospital, where he underwent a reconstructive heart surgery on the first day of his life. After three months, he suffered a second procedure to redirect the blood flow from the heart to the lungs, thus facilitating stress on the heart and then a similar surgery at 3 years.

At 8, he suffered from plastic bronchitis, a condition in which the lymphatic fluid accumulates in the airways and forms caulk -like plugs, which block the respiratory path, which makes difficult to breathe, according to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. He suffered a Fontan heart procedure to redirect the blood flow, but the procedure revealed that his heart will not last all his life.

As a result of the respiratory disease that patient Marshall, he truly fought for the next few years, said Feingold, the medical director of heart failure and transplant programs from the Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. Patients like Marshall are evaluated by the hospital cardiologists to determine whether their heart function is compromised as far as they should be placed on the waiting list.

“We know we will introduce risks” with a heart transplant, “Feingold said.

When Marshall was placed on the United National Network for the waiting list of organ sharing in April 2023 for a donor heart, said Fee, he was doing relatively well. But, as time has passed and had more difficulties in doing normal activities, which should have been easy for a boy of his age, he became clear that he needs a new heart.

The fact that Marshall needed a heart transplant when he was not so unusual for children born with cardiac defects. About half of the transplants performed in children – which usually does 12 to 16 heart transplants – are due to congenital heart defects, said Feingold.

With her son on the waiting list of heart transplantation, Fee said she was impatient during what has been shown to be 21 months before Marshall got the transplant. It was expected that the call would notify them that a donor heart was found to have happened at any time. The family remained in a four-hour road from Pittsburgh, to be ready if the call came from the hospital, which is the distance recommended by UPMC.

“Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland became our favorite place to visit when we needed a change of landscape,” said Fee.

She even created a special call tone on the mobile phone for the children’s hospital. Every time the phone rang, it will panic a little.

“I have always been nervous – what happens if my phone didn’t work for some reasons, or what happens if I forget my phone in the other room,” she said.

The United Network for organ sharing and UPMC say that waiting time varies, UPMC stressing that the type of blood, height, weight and location of a person can affect a person’s waiting time.

When the call from the transplant team finally came on January 19, Fee said she was shaking while she, Marshall and her older son, Wyatt, were at a family video call with relatives from all over the country.

“I am so grateful that it happened this because we were all together -practically,” said Fee, who described as in a shock, when the call came.

Her husband, Joe, worked away from home and had to pack when he returned. What followed was “an hour of white that drive on snowy and frozen roads to reach Pittsburgh,” Fee said.

“It was indeed a dizzying turn of events,” she said.

The tests established that the donor’s heart was a good match. The surgery lasted 9½ hours until completion, without ending until the morning of January 20.

Feingold offered them great news in the morning that Marshall’s new heart “beats beautiful”, said Fee. “We were so relieved, but I was still so nervous knowing about the extremely long way to recover that was before.”

Long recovery

Her son learns to find her normal from coming home. He manages his new drugs well, said Fee and appreciates the comfort of his own bed and has his familiar surroundings to help him heal the rest of the way.

He is unlikely to return to school this year, because he is immunocompromis, but Fee hopes he can raise a necessary reading or check -in with teachers and colleagues online.

“Marshall is naturally socially, so it meant the world for him to receive all the books and signs and gifts from friends and people in the community,” said Fee.

The Southmoreland student is looking forward to being in the school environment.

“The biggest test of his new heart will be to see if he can take a place with drums,” Fee said.

Deficiency of donors

Whether it is Become organ donor.

“The availability of the donors’ heart is difficult to foresee,” UPMC said.

Several children with heart disease could have an improved quality of life if there were several donor hearts, Feingold said.

“There are many children who are waiting for organ donors, who can save other lives,” said Feingold. “There are not enough donor organs available for transplant.”

The tax said they are so appreciated by the donor and have emphasized the importance of people who become organ donors.

“Marshall’s angel donor is a hero in the most true sense, offering the most generous and disinterested, so that a stranger can live after leaving this earth. It means the world to know that people choose to be organ donors, ”she said.