By Di Caelers

Father-of-two Trevor Gird was in Cape Town watching his daughter recover from a heart transplant for which she had waited more than two years when he heard that his young son was fighting for his life in intensive care in Johannesburg with the same condition.

But on Wednesday Gird and his wife Maryke, from Klerksdorp, were looking forward to enjoying many more years with their children thanks, they say, to the generosity of the organ donors who gave the youngsters a new shot at life.

Trevor junior, 16, and his sister Melanie, 22, both had Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia, a rare heart disease that is one of the leading causes of sudden death in young adults.

A genetic progressive heart condition, it has left the family reeling but at the same time full of gratitude for the generosity and help of others.

"My children would never be looking forward to long lives without the donors who decided to donate their organs, or without the expertise of (cardiothoracic surgeon) Dr Susan Vosloo, who is tops in her field," Gird said from his son's bedside on Wednesday.

Vosloo transplanted new hearts into both youngsters at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital Melanie on January 5, 2007 and her brother on Tuesday last week.

Although Melanie was not with her brother because she had started her studies at Potchefstroom University, Trevor said she gave him all the insight possible into what he should expect.

"It made it a lot easier because she knew exactly what I was going to go through," the rosy-cheeked youngster said.

But Gird said while Melanie spent 17 days in the intensive care unit post-transplant, her brother was up and eating two plates of food wherever possible just days later.

During 2006 Melanie had had 40 heart shocks to keep her alive. Her operation took nine hours and she suffered severe kidney problems, making for a very slow recovery according to her father.

While she was in Cape Town because she was so ill at the time her donor heart became available, it was a completely different story with Trevor.

Trevor was put on the waiting list in December 2006, just before Melanie's transplant, and the family was acutely aware that if a donor heart became available, they would have only six hours to get to Cape Town.

"We couldn't rely on commercial airlines but got the promise of a private jet belonging to a corporate sponsor.

"We got the call at 9.30am last Tuesday, the corporate jet picked us up at 11.30am and we were in Cape Town at 1.15pm and at the hospital by 1.45pm," Gird recalled.

The donor heart came from Johannesburg.

Melanie's 20-year-old donor was from the Western Cape and Gird said that donor's family had gone on record saying that what gave them comfort was that their son was a hero who saved the lives of six people with his donor organs, and altogether changed the lives of 17.

"My wife and I have spent years in a terrible mist on a mountain, not knowing when we were going to step off the cliff. But all that's changed now and we've got our children back," he said.

But he wanted to encourage everyone to consider becoming an organ donor.

"Dr Vosloo did only eight heart transplants last year when she could be doing 80 if the donor organs were available. We all need to be aware that there are 3 500 South Africans out there waiting for donor organs, and that only 1 000 are likely to be helped each year," Gird said.

For more information, call the Organ Donor Foundation toll-free number 0800 22 66 11.

This article was originally published on page 5 of The Cape Argus on January 31, 2008