![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2018\/10\/A05Z0588-2-COPY-315x280.jpg\")
But there\u2019s no doubt two-year-old Tom and 21-month-old Aradhya are seizing the chance to be free from the tangle of cords and tubes that had kept them alive.<\/p>\n
Catie Eccleston has nicknamed her youngest \u201cTiger Tom\u201d for his tenacity to keep fighting against slim odds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most progress we\u2019ve seen in his whole life. He can walk unassisted and up and down off the ground,\u201d Mrs Eccleston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t describe how wonderful this it. I just want him to be healthy and happy, and for our family to be together again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make the most out of life to honour the gift he has been given.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom\u2019s heart started failing at just 10 days old and his family moved state four times chasing the cardiac care he needed.<\/p>\n
He, like little Aradhya, suffered from a virus that weakened their hearts, quickly rendering them unable to adequately pump blood to all organs.<\/p>\n
Aradhya has\u00a0also started to walk on her own in the past week, giving mum Smital Rathod a visual reminder of her daughter\u2019s growing strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew a transplant meant that another child would lose their life, so I never prayed that she got a new heart. I always prayed she got better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a brave and kind decision when you have lost your own little child, that you can think about giving your organs to someone else to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n The toddlers\u2019 stories are just two life-saving examples among the 175 heart transplants performed at the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital since 1988.<\/p>\n The National Paediatric Heart Transplant Centre this week celebrated 30 years of mixing their medical skills with the selfless gifts of donor families, to save children from heart failure.<\/p>\n Associate Professor Robert Weintraub said technology had allowed them to increase the number of children eligible for transplant and keep them alive longer on the transplant list.<\/p>\n \u201cHeart transplantation allows sick children to have another chance of life,\u201d he said. \u201cTo see a child who was previously unwell and unable to participate in everyday activities grow into a strong and active person, is what motivates every person on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Words by Brigid O’Connell, photos by Mark Stewart (Herald Sun)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Heart transplant recipients Tom and Aradhya are striding into the future after receiving life-changing second chances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":7093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7097,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions\/7097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2018\/10\/A05Z0881-26-COPY-204x280.jpg\")