Toulouse: “A little heart presented itself”, Rémi’s life starts again, explains his father
It’s been a year since Rémi, 12, waited for a heart transplant. This has just taken place. His family from L’Union, near Toulouse, expresses his slowdown but also his fears about this new life that awaits them.
The very good news finally fell one evening. Rémi, 12, was going to have a new heart. The doctors came to announce it to the small family, in their room, at the Haut-L’Evêque hospital, in Bordeaux, where they had been waiting for this organ donation for more than a year. Laetitia, the mother, immediately “collapsed, in tears. Me, I remained without reaction, speechless, without knowing what is going on in my head. Then everything happened very quickly. Rémi was activated during the night,” recalls David, the father.
hospital, armed with his new heart, Rémi left Since the Haut-L’Evêque de Bordeaux. “The physical parameters are good” and he is now being followed in the intensive care unit of Purpan Hospital in Toulouse. His parents, David and Laetitia, always take turns, day and night, with him. “We never leave him alone,” confirms his father. This Easter Monday, he planned to visit her, with Roxane, her daughter. “She is very happy that her brother is back in Toulouse”, continues the dad.
For Rémi’s family, originally from L’Union, a new life begins after this transplant. “We are liberated. We live again in a way even if we know that nothing is won. At the slightest concern, we will worry. We are never safe from a complication,” acknowledges David. Rémi will have to spend some more time in rehabilitation, in the hospital, before returning home.
Our new fight
Nevertheless, the couple is aware of their luck to have been able to return with him to Toulouse. “A few months ago, we had doubts. So we savor it even if we are still in the test and we will be there for a very long time. In fact, this is going to be our life, because now Rémi is going to have medication taken at fixed times, changes in his diet…”, explains his father.
After several successive cardiac arrests, Rémi lived with a Berlin Heart, half of an artificial heart. In January, all the staff of the Haut-L’Evêque Hospital got involved, thanks in particular to Doctor Nadir Tafer, to the creation of a song “Heart beating”, intended to raise awareness of pediatric organ donation .
Without this transplant, this very attached boy might not have survived. “Now that we have had the chance to have a little heart presented to Rémi, our goal is not to make our son known, but to raise awareness about organ donation. It’s going to be our fight, because it’s a great thing, it saves lives,” David discovered.