Heart transplant gives five-year-old Inayah Hamdan a chance at life

Little Inayah Hamdan was born with her heart on the wrong side and facing backwards, but she’s been given a ‘second chance at life’ thanks to a donor heart, now in the right place.

Little Inayah Hamdan was born with her heart on the wrong side and facing backwards — but she’s been given a “second chance at life” thanks to a donor heart, now in the right place.

For the first time in her five years, the Georges Hall girl is running, jumping and dancing after the lifesaving heart transplant at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Her mother Jay was cooking dinner when the long-awaited call came through at 7pm a few months ago.

She and husband Talal were on the plane within hours and Inayah was in theatre by 5am the next day.

It was touch-and-go, there were complications after the day-long surgery and Inayah required heart and lung support for two weeks. She lost so much body mass, she had to relearn to sit, walk and write again.

Inayah, five, is up and running after a heart transplant to treat her rare condition. Picture: Tim Hunter

But Mrs Hamdan said her “little heart warrior” pulled through — and not for the first time.

“Because she was born with a rare congenital heart disease, Heterotaxy Syndrome, it made the transplant more complicated,” Mrs Hamdan said.

“Her old heart was on the right side and facing the back and she was missing valves, so the surgeons had to rearrange the plumbing in order to put the donor heart on the left side, facing forward.

“After the transplant she spent 59 days in hospital, and will undergo rehabilitation for a long time — and remain on anti-rejection medication for life.

“But she amazes me every day with her resilience and strength.

“And my heart goes out to the donor family. Their selfless act of donating the heart of their child means my child can continue living.”

Even in hospital Inayah was able to wear her Supertee, a specially designed medical garment, disguised as a superhero costume, which allows easy access for wires and monitors.

The couple were told by three specialists to terminate their pregnancy after scans at 19 weeks gestation picked up the rare condition which affects one in 200,000 girls.

That was never an option for the pair, who instead began the heartbreaking task of searching for funeral plots near their home in case their third child didn’t survive.

From the start it was a battle for Inayah, who would turn blue and pass out every time she cried as a newborn.

She had her first open-heart surgery at three months, and had five more surgeries before she was three years old, when a pacemaker was inserted.

“It’s been extremely heartbreaking and sad,” Mrs Hamdan said.

“If I could take all that pain away from her, I would do it in a heartbeat. Every surgery she had my heart broke,” Mrs Hamdan said.

“She’s been such a fighter but last year after she got influenza A her heart started deteriorating fast.

“Inayah means ‘gift of God’ and the transplant has really been a miracle — she’s running and swimming and dancing when before she would be breathless after 15 seconds.

“She says to me ‘my new heart is making me strong’.

“And that makes my heart happy.”

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Originally published as Heart transplant gives five-year-old Inayah Hamdan a chance at life