SECOND HEART TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT DEAD

The 19-year-old girl, the beneficiary of the second heart transplant performed by Kandy hospital doctors, passed away around midday yesterday.

The cause of her death has been reported as a bacterial infection. She was being treated at the ICU at the time of her death. The deceased Sachini Sewwandi from Aluthgama had a congenital defect which reduced her heart function drastically. At the time of her operation on September 26, her heart had only a 10% function rate, with the cardiologists predicting that she had only a few months to live. To cure her the doctors found a matching organ in a 29-year-old man, Nalinda Sakalasuriya, who was declared as brain dead following a motor cycle accident recently. He was also being treated at the Kandy hospital. This second transplant was to be performed on September 20 initially but was postponed due to a disagreement between members of the operating team.

Her father made a complaint to the Aluthgama police against the decision of the doctors saying their action had put his daughter’s life at stake. The heart that was readied for the operation had to be discarded when the surgery was not performed as planned.

Sachini’s sister too had passed away due to the same heart ailment at the age of 17.