MEMORIES of how her father benefited from the gift of life have stirred former Warrnambool resident Lynda Lee Ward into promoting organ donation.
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Warrnambool welder Michael Lee became the first south-west resident to receive a heart transplant when he went under the knife of famed surgeon Victor Chang in August 1986.
The father-of-three was flown to Sydney to undergo surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and was operated on for six hours by a team of surgeons led by Dr Chang.
The much-publicised operation managed to prolong Mr Lee’s life by more than a decade before he died aged 45 in 1997.
Ms Lee Ward said her late father had to battle against rejection of his new heart and medication side effects including gout, skin cancer and cataracts.
He also had a pacemaker fitted for the new heart.
“I was 18 years old when he passed away but there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think of dad,” Ms Lee Ward said.
“Looking back, 25 years after he underwent surgery made me think about all the headlines it made at the time. The anti-rejection drugs they gave to dad were quite experimental.
“Heart transplant surgery had been around for a while back in the mid-1980s but it had gained a lot of attention at that time because of the success Dr Chang had and the recovery rate he managed to achieve.”
Late South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard was the first to perform a successful heart transplant in 1966.
Australian doctors tried to replicate Dr Barnard’s success but several failed transplants in 1967 meant the procedure was not popular for more than a decade.
Dr Chang’s use of anti-rejection drugs on heart transplant patients gained national attention in the 1980s, the most notable being teenager Fiona Coote in 1984.
Dr Chang was shot dead in a failed extortion attempt in 1991 by two brazen criminals outside his Sydney home.
Ms Lee Ward said her father was shattered when he heard about Dr Chang’s death and was keen to attend his funeral but was unable due to medical complications.
She said her father’s experience meant the Lee family had long been supporters of organ donation.
“It is disappointing that only a small percentage of Australians are registered for organ donation,” Ms Lee Ward said.
“As soon as my sisters and I were eligible to sign up to the organ donation register, we did because we knew how important it was for so many other families out there.” For more information — www.donatelife.gov.au
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