Th e HEALTH Plus | JANUARY, 2019
06
p06 i TRUST IJN
The super woman
of heart patients
Norshafi na's outlook in life changed after she was diagnosed
with a life threatening infection of the heart, which led her to
become a heart failure patient
N
ORSHAFINA is a person few people
would want to mess with, given her
title as Senior Police Offi cer for the
Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM). As
a 38 year old woman, she is a very
active and takes pride in her work.
Her outlook in life changed after she
was diagnosed with a life threatening infection of
the heart, and has led her to become a heart failure
patient.
It started when she was on a case, during which
she was an offi cer leading a crime investigation. “I
was 8 months pregnant when I receive the case, and
thought to pursue it as the nature of the case was my
specialty,” she starts.
“Th e crime scene was, for lack of a better word,
unsuitable for me at the time, and I felt light-headed
because of it.” She held herself enough to not faint,
yet her legs hadn’t the strength. She fell, and the pain
she felt was enough to tell her something was wrong.
Being a busy police offi cer with a hectic schedule,
she waited 3 days before actually going to the hospital
to check. Tragedy struck when she found out that
the baby was badly hurt by the fall. Th e baby didn’t
survive, and she almost didn’t too.
permanent one.
“I was referred to the transplant team at IJN, and
they put me into the list for transplant. It happened
so fast that I didn’t know what to feel at the time. I
simply go with the fl ow and agreed to the doctors.”
Norshafi na went into surgery earlier this year, and
she came out a champion.
“Th e doctors are very surprised to see me recover-
ing as fast as I am. I was up from bed just days after
surgery, and my fast walking and exercising ritual
hadn’t changed much as well.”
Looking ahead
Norshafi na is grateful to have been placed into IJN
and had her surgery done. Her loving family, especially
her mum, is always there for support. And she feels
just as spry and proactive as she had before.
“I do hope that I can keep myself healthy, and to
always follow what the doctors order. I am currently
working, but for now in the offi ce and not out and
about. I am forever grateful to the doctors and my
family who had supported me. And I want to let others
with similar condition as mine to not give up.” — Th e
Health Plus
HEALTHY AS EVER... Norshafi na was up
and walking 3 days after her surgery.
Birth compromised
Th e result of her baby’s birth was not only to see her
baby not surviving, but to fi nd out that she had an
infection which attacked all of her vital organs. She
was in the ICU for 21 days, fi ghting off the infection.
She was able to survive the battle, but it had left her
heart tremendously damaged and weak.
Going into transplant
She was deemed a heart failure patient of the National
Heart Institute (IJN), and was given medication as
well as a pacemaker to manage her extremely weak
heart. “After I was equipped with a pacemaker, I
continued working and even furthering my studies.
I was on pacemaker from 2010 to 2017. I continued
being active with work and studies, and was doing
things just like I was before.”
Her active lifestyle took a toll on her again, as her
pacemaker simply couldn’t keep her heart pumping
hard enough.
“There were times where I will just simply
‘fall asleep’ while doing work or studying with my
friends. Th ere was even one time where I was almost
proclaimed dead before suddenly waking up again.”
It was time for her to take the next st ep,
as her ‘sleeping’ episodes will eventually lead to a
There were times
where I will just
simply ‘fall asleep’
while doing work
or studying with
my friends. There
was even one time
where I was almost
proclaimed dead
before suddenly
waking up again.”
– Norshafi na
Norshafi na is grateful to have
been placed into IJN and had
her surgery done.
70 and going on strong
Y
OU may have heard about one Albert Gunarat-
nam Samuel Th ambiah. If you haven’t, you are
in for a story of a lifetime.
Albert is 70 years old this year, and for a big chunk
of his life, he has been living with a donor’s heart.
He was an overworked employee, with alcohol to
fall onto whenever work stress becomes too heavy.
He was also diabetic with a poor diet. In 1996, his
hectic lifestyle fi nally caught up to his well-being,
and he suff ered a major heart attack.
It was then that the doctors told him he had heart
failure. It was devastating to Albert.
“Th e fi rst thing I thought was am I going to die?”
Albert laments. Yet he found support in the form
of his doctors, by starting him on medication and
improving his lifestyle. Although with his condi-
tion, he will inevitably face death without a heart
transplant.
Albert’s uniqueness, his curse
To understand Albert’s predicament, you need to
fi rst understand that in 1996, heart transplant
was still theoretical in Malaysia. No surgeon has
ever done it, and therefore no hope for Albert.
“My doctor at Assunta Hospital advised me to go
to India, as back then, they were the ones to have
done it. And so I went to India.”
Little did he know that even in India, or anywhere
else in that matter, his chances of getting a donor
for a heart transplant was tremendously slim. Th e
doctors in India confi rmed.
Albert’s blood type is AB positive, one of the rarest
(rarest being AB negative). His doctor told him that
only 5 percent of the world’s population belongs in
that blood group.
Albert was again, left devastated. He didn’t
think he would be alive for much longer after that.
His doctor back in Malaysia however, assured him
otherwise. “I returned home, and my doctor assured
me that they will get me a new heart.”
IJN was there
Towards the end of the year 1997, when Albert’s
condition continues to worsen, the National Heart
Institute (IJN) had successfully carried out a heart
transplant procedure, and had marked them as