IT is the kind of news no expectant mother wants to hear. Tamworth resident Leonnee Martin, 25, was pregnant with her first child when she and her fiancé Joseph Stolker were confronted with some unwelcome news.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That moment has led to a young woman lending her voice to an organ donation campaign that could touch people in the Inverell region.
“So in 2011, I was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy during the third trimester of my pregnancy,” Leonnee said.
The condition occurs when the heart becomes damaged. Leonnee said though women can recover after delivery, her condition was hereditary, and doctors were unsure if she would naturally heal.
“Thinking back not, it wasn’t that scary; I think I was more excited to deliver the baby,” Leonnee said with a chuckle.
The diagnosis meant her son Levi was delivered by emergency caesarean section at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Afterwards, Leonnee was kept in hospital for scans and tests and treatment with medication. In those three months, doctors determined her only option was a heart transplant.
She was transferred to St Vincent’s and within days, her body began shutting down, and Leonnee was fitted with a left ventricle assist device (LVAD) to prolong her life.
“I deteriorated to the point where I only had days left,” she said.
The LVAD required an open heart surgery for the implant. The status of the operation meant Leonnee had to wait another three months before she could be activated on the transplant list. She said she felt lucky she waited only five months for her new heart.
Emily Daley is a donation specialist nurse at the acute care unit at Tamworth Base Hospital. She said those who choose to donate their organs are treated with the utmost respect and surgeries are carried out under a team of transplant specialists.
Emily said it was important that those who put themselves on the donor register should have an intimate conversation with their loved ones about their wishes. Ultimately, it is the family who uphold that consent should the moment arrive to make those emotional decisions.
“They almost feel like they’re making that decision 100 per cent again, all over again,” Emily said.
“However what we find is families who have spoken about it before are very, very likely to support or uphold that person’s consent.”
After her transplant, Leonnee was monitored for organ rejection, and began a physiotherapy program to recover. Fortunately, she only had minimal rejection issues and was able to lift her son on her own when he was about a year old.
“I feel really lucky. It’s incredible what transplant does. I was lethargic and I could barely move, and like I said, I had days left,” she said.
“And then after the transplant, it’s just immediate recovery, and apart from the medications, it’s incredible. It literally gives you your life back.”
Leonnee has founded the Tamworth ‘Don’t Throw It Away’ event this August. The fundraising event dinner and massive garage sale is about raising awareness and numbers for organ donation in the New England and North West region.
She said one donor can save the lives of up to 10 people, and it cold be a comfort for a family in a time of grief to know that loved one is saving the lives of so many.
To learn more about Don’t Throw it Away, go to dontthrowitaway.com.au. For more about organ donation, go to donatelife.gov.au.
