Double the joy, following heart-lung transplant

Nicole, left, and her twin sister Isabella Nearly six months following a heart-lung transplant, Nicole Kouri makes a triumphant return to school, alongside her twin sister Isabella. It was a pact she made with her Dad back in August of 2015, while her friends were lying by the pool, soaking up the final days of summer, and Nicole was lying in a bed at Boston Children’s Hospital. 14-year-old Nicole was born with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) — otherwise known as a hole in the heart — and pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition associated with VSD that makes it difficult for blood to flow properly through the lungs. Being sick was Nicole’s “normal.” “I knew I couldn’t do much physically, but I’ve always lived life. I was on a basketball team. I did a 5k run and lots of stuff that wasn’t easy for me.” From a very early age, visits to Boston Children’s Hospital from her home in Miami, Florida, were routine — two to three times a year. She was followed and treated by Dr. Mary Mullen, associate director of Boston Children’s Pulmonary Hypertension Program. Although physical activities were not easy for Nicole, she managed to live a relatively normal life, until her condition worsened in April of 2015. Initially, doctors told her she would need a lung transplant but soon decided a heart-lung transplant was the best option. “I didn’t understand what that meant at the time,” she says. “I was not really processing it in my head. I didn...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories cardiomyopathy double lung transplant Dr. Tajinder Singh Francis Fynn-Thompson heart transplant Heart transplant program hypertension Lung Transplant Program Mary Mullen Pediatric Transpl Source Type: news