Jessica Manning has received a heart and lung transplant. Photo / Supplied
Jessica Manning has received a heart and lung transplant. Photo / Supplied
Until now, Jessica Manning has never known what "normal" feels like.
A year ago she could barely leave the house - and when she did she needed a defibrillator and a person trained in CPR with her because her heart could have stopped beating at any moment.
Butthree weeks ago the 25-year-old moved out of home and six weeks ago she started full-time work in a customer services role thanks to a double organ transplant which has given her a "second chance at life".
In September last year, Manning, who was born with six heart conditions, received a life-saving heart and liver transplant after about 17 months on the waiting list.
"I feel amazing. I can't even remember what normal feels like because I've never been normal," says the young Auckland woman.
"I've always had the struggles of breathing and not doing this because I can't breathe and now I can actually breathe.
"Everyone asks me what's the best part about having the transplant and I just say, 'I can breathe'."
The conditions Manning was born with meant only half of her heart worked, to which both the main arteries were connected. She also had holes in the walls between the chambers.
Jessica Manning with her sister in 1997, aged 3, 12 days after Fontan surgery and aged 25 post heart and liver transplant. Photo / Supplied
She was diagnosed at 3 days old, had her first heart surgery at 5 months, her second just before she turned 3 years old and the next when she was 6.
Ten years later she reacted badly to a surgery to repair her aorta and had a pacemaker implanted when she was 18.
In 2016, surgeons tried one final surgery before resorting to a transplant. It was then doctors discovered she had severe liver disease too, a side effect of one of the heart surgeries, and was told she would need a double transplant.
As she waited for the call that would change her life, Manning slowly deteriorated.
"I was at the point where I could no longer really shower myself. I had no independence left. I was in bed 24/7. I couldn't really do anything."
Jessica Manning is grateful to be alive after a heart and liver transplant. Photo / File
In September, doctors found a match and she was rushed into hospital for a surgery which would last 20 hours.
During the double transplant, complications saw her lose 11.5 litres of blood and she was placed into an induced coma for five days after surgery.
When she woke up she couldn't move her fingers or toes and had to learn to walk again.
Four weeks later, just as she had begun to take her first steps, a fluid build-up caused a hole in her diaphragm and just as she was being taken for surgery to fix it, the fluid "strangled" her heart sending her into cardiac arrest.
Defibrillators didn't work so Manning's surgeon reopened her chest and spent 20 minutes massaging her heart before it started beating again.
Jessica Manning knows what it is to feel normal thanks to a double organ transplant. Photo / Supplied
After that she was placed in a coma for a further three days and she woke to find she had lost all her muscle memory again and her kidneys had stopped working.
After two months of intensive therapy she was discharged from hospital, although she still needed a bit of support to walk, and after five months of dialysis her kidneys had begun to function again.
Ten months post-transplant everything is looking good and Manning said it was all worth it.
"Things change so much after transplant. I have a future, I have goals and I received a second chance at life."
Manning is well aware her second chance was possible only because of another family's generosity at a time of grief and she said she could not thank them enough.
She was one of 20 people to receive a heart transplant last year and one of 47 to receive a liver transplant from a deceased donor.
Jess Manning has had numerous surgeries because of the six heart defects she was born with. Photo / Supplied
Now she encourages everyone to be a donor.
"It's so worth it," she said. "You not only save one person's life, you save multiple.
"For us it's like a rebirth because of how sick we were - knocking on death's door and whatnot."
Organ donation
• Last year there were 62 deceased organ donors in New Zealand, down from the 73 in 2017 but well up from the 36 in 2013.
• Including living donors, there were 183 kidney transplants, 49 liver transplants, 28 lunch transplants and 20 heart transplants.
• There is always the chance of organ rejection with the success rate for heart transplants in New Zealand at 78 per cent and adult liver transplants at 89 per cent after five years.
