
By Tania Martin
EMERALD teenager Heath Gillespie is looking forward to getting a bit of normality back into his life after having a heart transplant last year.
The 17-year-old is enjoying being home after spending months in and out of hospital, but is also looking forward to getting back to playing cricket and spending time with his friends.
However, he will have to take it slowly. Although he is on the road to recovery, he will continue his studies this year by correspondence.
Heath said being so sick really changed his whole perspective on life.
“I’m just really looking forward to getting back to a normal life – that’s all I really want,” he said.
Heath was diagnosed with heart failure in March last after contracting a virus.
His father Neale Gillespie said the virus started like a normal cold, but caused irreparable damage when it attacked Heath’s heart.
The weekend before Heath got sick he was playing cricket and working two days a week.
“He just had what we thought was a cold for 10 days, but when it wasn’t getting any better we took him to the Knox Hospital, which prescribed Heath some antibiotics for what they thought was pneumonia,” Mr Gillespie said.
Heath spent the next three to four days in Knox Hospital before being transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital, where it was discovered that he had a damaged heart.
He was then transferred to the Alfred Hospital where he underwent surgery and had a ventricular pump implanted, which was to help his heart function properly while he waited for a suitable heart for a transplant.
Heath’s mother, Michelle, said he continued to battle viral infections during the long wait. He spent most of last year in hospital or in bed.
The Gillespies said the local community was a really great support last year, with people providing cooked meals, while others visited Heath at home or at the Alfred Hospital just to see how he was going.
It was late last year when the phone call came that Heath was to get the much needed transplant.
“You are hoping it will happen, but you just never know when it will happen, and we were just amazed when the phone call did come,” Mr Gillespie said.
Mrs Gillespie said Heath’s pump had become infected and would have had to be replaced if the heart had not become available when it did.
“It came just in the nick of time,” she said.
Mr Gillespie who had a partnership in the Emerald Video store for more than six years with his brother, decided to sell his share last year to concentrate all his energy on getting his son better.
He said the whole experience opened the family’s eyes to the importance of organ donation.
He said there were not enough donors for the number of people who need both heart and lung transplants