SITTING opposite 17-year-old student Sean Carroll in the kitchen of his family’s home in Swan Hill, it is quite unbelievable that just three months ago he received a new heart.
Born with hyper plastic left heart syndrome — a rare condition where the left side of the heart does not develop properly — Sean has spent much of his 17 years of life in and out of hospital.
Following problems with a pacemaker, Sean and his family were told he would need a heart transplant in December last year.
Despite expecting to be on the wait list for up to a year, on January 14 — exactly a year after he had been fitted with the pacemaker — his life changed with one short phone call.
“We were allowed to go home for Christmas and then went back to Melbourne on January 10 — so that day we were officially on the wait list,” his mother Margaret said.
“We are so grateful for the gift of life — it was an emotional rollercoaster…”
“We were prepared to wait a year, but on January 14 we got a phone call only four days after — it was just amazing.
“It was 7am and they said: ‘splash some water on your face and get Sean over here’.
“I thought ‘how am I going to wake up Sean and tell him the news’, but he was already awake — he had heard the whole conversation.
“I felt shocked, happy, and sad for the donor and their family. But we are so grateful for the gift of life — it was an emotional rollercoaster.”
Sean’s family then spent a tense 10 and a half hours in the waiting room of the Royal Children’s Hospital while he underwent surgery.
Although doctors said Sean would be in hospital for three months following the transplant, his recovery has exceeded all expectations and he returned to school just seven weeks after.
Sean described the way he feels now with his new heart simply as “better”.
“Before I ran out of breathe easily and had bad circulation so my legs would get tired easily… but otherwise you wouldn’t notice anything,” he said.
“Now it is better, it is easier to breathe and easier to do things.”
Although he still needs to return to Melbourne for regular check-ups, the Year 11 student is now looking to the future with plans to pursue a career that deals with electronics.
“I’m so proud of Sean,” Margaret said.
“I am just so, so proud of him, he has coped so well with everything.”
