Heart transplant is a very critical surgical procedure with the odds heavily loaded against the patient. Post transplant is also a very risky period with the danger of rejection always prevalent. So if a person in a family has a transplant, it is something very unique with the patient needing supportive care for the rest of his or her life. One person is enough in a family or what about two? No it is three, yes three persons in a family who have received a heart transplant for the same genetic ailment which has afflicted the mother and her two sons.
Ms Deanna Kremis and two of her three sons suffer from an inherited heart condition which has been caused by a genetic aberration. All three have had life-saving heart transplants and share a unique bond as one of the few families to have three heart transplant recipients.
Ms Kremis remembers the two brothers, aged 7 and 10 who had their heart transplants and were racing against one another, something which they could never dream a few months before the transplant. Ms Kremis and her two sons are afflicted by the same disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It is a rare genetic condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken until it can’t pump properly. The disease runs in the Ms Kremis family and her mother, brother and grandmother all suffer from the same genetic anomaly.
The two brothers were first to receive their heart transplants. Their mother also had to get a heart transplant which was by itself a very terrifying prospect for the kids who had gone through the pain and the sufferings associated with heart transplants.
Life is not easy for persons who have undergone a transplant. The risk of rejection is always there and to preempt it immune suppressant drugs are given. Immune suppressant drugs have severe side effects and causes osteoporosis and recurrent infections. Ms Kremis and her two sons will have to have pills for the rest of their life.
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