Mechanical heart girl Tee making progress

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Tee Hui Yi, who was implanted with a mechanical heart two months ago, is progressing well.
A statement from the National Heart Institute (IJN) said the 13-year-old girl was transferred to the general ward on Nov 21 where she would undergo further rehabilitation. Prior to that, she was recuperating in the intensive care unit (ICU).
She would also be trained to self-manage her mechanical heart.
Tee, who is from Batu Pahat, is the country’s second mechanical heart assist recipient after Mohamed Fikri Nor Azmi, 16, received it last July.
Tee was taken off the ventilator on Nov 8 — a week after making her first post-surgery public appearance at a meeting with the media.
Throughout her stay in the ICU, she underwent daily cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation routine exercises. Two days after being taken off the ventilator, she started taking semi- solid food and on Nov 12, she started on a normal diet.
In celebration of her progress, the ICU staff treated her to her favourite food — fried chicken.
On Monday, she was taken to Lake Titiwangsa for morning exercises as part of the out-of-hospital programme.
Tee was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure when she was two years old after suffering from a viral infection. Since then, she became a regular patient at the Batu Pahat Hospital and the IJN.
Her condition deteriorated further and she was placed on the heart transplant list in May this year.
She has not been to school for two years.
On Sept 13, she was re-admitted to the IJN. While undergoing treatment, she developed a potential fatal heart rhythm.
It was a After this, that IJN decided to implant Tee with the mechanical heart.