Heart transplant survivor marks 25 years

When Fiona Coote had her first heart transplant, surviving five years was considered
about the best she could expect. Twenty-five years later, she is still going strong.
"To be feeling so well and healthy is phenomenal, this is an incredible day for me,"
said Ms Coote, who as a 14-year-old became Australia's second and youngest ever
heart transplant patient in 1984.
She had a second transplant two years later and has now survived longer than any
other transplant patient in the southern hemisphere.
"Many of the doctors who treated me back then are still here today," she said during
25th anniversary celebrations in Sydney, with scores of the other 1,300 people given
fresh hope of life at St Vincent's Hospital's world renowned heart and lung
transplant unit.
"This time, just over 25 years ago, I had no health problems, then my life changed
within a month," said Ms Coote, whose heart suffered complications from
viral-induced tonsilitis.
Now 39, she attributes her prolonged well-being to daily immunosuppressant
medication as well as a good diet, exercise and a healthy lifestyle.
She works as a physiotherapist's assistant, saying: "Having my chest opened so many
times has been very handy."
The only Australian to receive a new heart before Ms Coote was a 39-year-old shearer
from Armidale in northern NSW, who died months after his February 23, 1984,
operation.
But the program started by the late Dr Victor Chang has become so successful that
the five-year survival rate is now almost 77 per cent, well over the international
standard of 68 per cent.
The transplant unit's director, Dr Phillip Spratt, said St Vincent's hoped this year
to implant the southern hemisphere's first totally artificial heart.
He said a $150 million federal government project to boost organ donor numbers was
expected to lead to a 30 per cent increase in the hospital's transplant operations.
NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca, who also marked the 3,000th organ transplant
at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred on Monday, said miraculous technology and brilliant
professionals were helping to "extend the limits of human compassion".
Double heart transplant patient Peter Wicks, president of the Australian Heart/Lung
Transplant Association, presented St Vincent's with a signpost from a Canberra
Street recently named after Dr Chang.
He said he'd acquired it legally but had been prepared to "pinch it".