Kept alive by a device, heart patient to marry soon

SINGAPORE - This isn't something she needs to do to get it off the bucket list. She needs to do it to live.

Ms Salina Mohamed So'ot needs a new heart. Now, she's kept alive by a lemon-sized mechanical device dubbed HeartMate.

She was first diagnosed with an enlarged heart 10 years ago, after complaining of breathlessness. Doctors at the National Heart Centre put her on medication until 2009.

Then her condition worsened.

They told her that her only chance of survival was a heart transplant.

She was put on a waiting list, but in the meantime, the heart device was inserted into her chest to help her live.

A power cable runs out of her skin, plugging into batteries and a controller unit, which she carries with her at all times.

Since being on the heart-transplant waiting list in 2009, she has got her hopes up three times, only to be let down.

"Sometimes there is a match, but later a complication, such as an infection which affects the heart, eventually leads to the procedure falling through," she explains. \ Each episode is emotionally draining, she says. Still, she is determined to keep faith and to continue waiting.

"Now, every day is a blessing as long as I survive. Being able to work and come home to be with my family and friends is something I don't take for granted.

"I just plan for tomorrow, instead of the long term, and I make sure to have time to do things that make me happy," she says.

But not having a heart does not mean Ms Salina is immune to affairs of the heart.