At five months, Hana Yago developed a serious cough that prompted her parents to take her to the emergency room. After running several echocardiograms, it became apparent to the Yago parents and Hana’s doctors that Hana had an enlarged heart.
Hana was officially diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where her heart muscles are stretched, or dilated, and lack the strength to pump blood adequately through her body.
The doctors attempted to maintain Hana’s health with medication, but barely nine months later, one of Hana’s lungs collapsed. Her heart was crowding her lungs, and she would need a new heart to survive.
Before she was even two years old, Hana was placed on the heart transplant candidate list as “high priority.”
Her wait time? Six to eight months.
Until the hospital found a donor heart that matched Hana’s body, she would have to stay in the hospital, hooked up to a ventricular assist device, a machine that supports a patient’s heart and blood flow via an external heart-pump.
After waiting 192 days, the Yago family finally received good news: the hospital had found a heart for Hana.
In May 2016, Hana finally received her new heart.
Two-year-old Hana is now “talking, growing, and moving a mile a minute.” Her mother, Kathleen, is taking every opportunity she can to take Hana outside the hospital; her adventures and romps had been severely limited before her transplant.
Although heart transplant patients do have to be attentive of many health concerns – like high blood pressure, weaker immune systems, and overall health – Hana’s doctors are hopeful for her full and quick recovery.
Kathleen has documented Hana’s entire journey on a blog online, called Hana’s Heart.
Just after Hana received her donor heart, Kathleen wrote, “The lives of two families are forever changed. We are so grateful. There are no words — not for us or them. I think of the donor family often. . . . I hope they at least get maybe a little solace in knowing their child’s heart is beating inside of Hana and has given her life and freedom and independence.”
