Parents appeal for heart donor to save the life of teenage daughter

THE PARENTS of a teenager who has been on a heart machine for more than 250 days have appealed for a heart donor to save her life.

Kiva Humphries (16) is being kept alive by the mechanical heart machine at the Mater hospital, Dublin.

Her doctors have warned that the risk of an infection or a serious stroke is increasing the longer she stays on the machine.

The heart muscles of the transition year student from Deansgrange in south Dublin were badly damaged last February after she contracted an infection.

“It presented itself as a cold at first and turned into something devastating,” Kiva’s mother, Avril Humphries, said on RTÉ television last night.

When she was first attached to the heart machine, Kiva also suffered a number of strokes and, as a result, is unable to speak at present.

Avril Humphries described her daughter as a fighter.

“She has had an awful lot of support from family and friends and that is what has kept her going,” she said.

Freddie Wood, National Cardiac Surgery Unit director, said the risk of major stroke or infection increased the longer Kiva remained on the machine.

He appealed to families to consider organ donation.

“If any family in the tragic situation where a loved one is dead from irreversible brain damage considered organ donation, it would be of great help,” he said.

The transition year student is the only person in Ireland presently on a mechanical heart machine.

The longest a patient has previously been on a heart machine in Ireland was 310 days.