Baby Chi-hoi battles potentially fatal blood clots as wait for life-saving heart transplant goes on in Hong Kong
- Doctors operate as 13-month-old’s mother says she knows her son is in a race against time
- Surgeon says donor is needed urgently for Chi-hoi, who now needs help breathing
A critically ill Hong Kong baby who will die without a heart transplant has had emergency surgery to remove potentially fatal blood clots.
The update on the condition of 13-month-old Hui Chi-hoi, who suffers from a rare genetic heart defect, came after his parents made an emotional plea for help to find an organ donor earlier this month.
Chi-hoi has restrictive cardiomyopathy, or RCM, which has led to his heart and other organs failing. His brother, who also had the defect, died at the age of seven months in 2016.
The baby boy is staying in the intensive care unit of Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, and is on artificial life support.
On Friday, Chi-hoi’s mother said she had been told by the hospital on Wednesday that some small blood clots had been found in her son’s heart pump.
“The risk we have been concerned about has appeared. We are very worried,” said the mother, who did not want to be named.
