251015: Amy Miller has been in and out of intensive care for the past eight weeks. Right: The Miller family, mom Natasha, dad Michael, Amy, and little sister, Layla. 251015: Amy Miller has been in and out of intensive care for the past eight weeks. Right: The Miller family, mom Natasha, dad Michael, Amy, and little sister, Layla.
Vuyo Mkhize
JOHANNESBURG: Up until 10 weeks ago, 5-year-old Amy Miller was having a normal childhood – as normal as a childhood can be for someone born with a congenital heart defect.
She had defied the odds after a nine-hour open-heart operation at only six days of age.
However, Amy now faces a new battle to survive. She is tired and so is her heart. She needs a heart transplant.
The defect is known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome and affects normal blood flow through the heart.
Natasha and her husband Mike and two daughters live in Durban. Amy was born in Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.
“The first words I remember the doctor saying were ‘the baby is struggling’,” 36-year-old Miller said.
Amy had the surgery done six days later – had she not, she would have surely died as the syndrome is 100 percent fatal if left untreated.
She was in hospital for 45 days after her first operation and her second operation had to be done sooner than hoped at four months old as her aorta collapsed and had to be reconstructed. She had more surgeries at two.
Amy needs a new heart, but the donor pool is small.
Amy’s parents have started a campaign on Facebook called #AnewheartforAmy.
To find out more about organ donation, go to www.heart kids.co.za
