“ I am so grateful to be able to breathe normally now, since it was such a struggle before. I hope you can find some comfort in knowing I couldn’t be more grateful to have a second chance to live and I will never forget this gift that you have given me.” Ayla Sutherland’s letter to her donor’s family
03 01 Today Ayla Sutherland is at home with her mother Tina 02 Ayla has rejoined her friends in Year Eight at her local high school 03 A/Prof David Winlaw, Dr Phillip Spratt and Dr Paul Jansz
does the work of the heart and lungs. St Vincent’s Hospital is the statewide referring hospital for ECMO, and Ayla’s time on the device is thought to be an Australian record. In that time, as they waited for donor lungs, Tina rarely left her daughter’s bedside and Ayla’s weight plummeted to 25 kilograms. “I think what got Ayla through was firstly her mother, who was incredibly committed and sensible and dedicated, and helped her find what it took for Ayla to stay on track and remain focused on getting better,” A/Prof Winlaw says. “And Ayla herself is very tenacious; she fought very hard the whole time.” But even when Ayla’s new lungs were ready, her battle wasn’t over. Tina describes her sense of disbelief when doctors told her, 10 hours into Ayla’s double lung transplant in January 2011, that she was unlikely to survive: “I would not accept it. I just kept thinking not all of this and then she dies, it’s not possible.” A/Prof Winlaw says Ayla’s transplant was among the most difficult he’s been involved with.
“There were several times along the course of her treatment where we felt she was more likely to not survive. The lung transplant was technically very difficult. It involved multiple re-operations for bleeding and other things and it was an enormous team exercise between the Children’s Hospital and St Vincent’s,” A/Prof Winlaw says. “But once she had her new lungs sorted out, her recovery continued quite well, considering that her body was very debilitated. Ayla had been sedated and lying still with her muscles relaxed for so long that she needed extensive rehabilitation to regain strength, and this happened mainly at the Children’s Hospital.” Having been sent home from hospital in late May 2011, Ayla recently re-joined her friends in Year Eight at her local high school. One of the most-welcome surprises of her new life is that now Ayla can sing, and as she lets out a voice that is pure and strong, her smile is beautiful and her joy infectious.
many journeys. one vision. | st vincent’s hospital | sacred heart | st vincent’s private hospital | mater hospital | st joseph’s hospital | st joseph’s village
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“I can walk around now and I don’t get puffed at all. I’m going to be able to swim soon and do all the things that before I couldn’t. Soon I should even be able to run.”
Annual Review 2010/11
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