Kamila Jaroslawska, 35, was clinically dead after her heart stopped during a routine operation and spent weeks attached to a machine keeping her alive while she waited for a donor
A mum who received a new heart after dying on the operating table for 33 minutes during a routine operation says her old organ had changed colour after she was kept alive with no pulse for weeks, and that once she got her new heart she felt “warm” for the first time in weeks.
Kamila Jaroslawska, 35, was registered clinically dead after her heart stopped during surgery and had to be attached to a machine which acted as the organ for six weeks. Her condition was so severe she was placed at the top of the UK’s super urgent heart transplant waiting list while she waited for a donor. Incredibly, a new heart was eventually found and after a complex 10 hour procedure she was given a “second chance at life”.
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Mother of three Kamila said: “When my heart was finally removed, it had changed colour – it had been lifeless for weeks. When I woke up after the surgery, I could hear my heartbeat again. After almost two months without a pulse it was the strangest feeling – for the first time in weeks I felt warm.”
Kamila, of the Wirral, Merseyside, was saved by specialist doctors from Wythenshawe Hospital, run by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, following complications with a heart procedure. When she had her routine operation on November 8 last year, Kamila said she was “fit and healthy”.
The mum had lived with a minor heart condition since she was a child. She always knew she would one day need mitral valve surgery – a relatively low risk fix to replace the leaky valve. Reflecting on events before the surgery, she said: “Before the procedure I was a little worried but I was reassured that it was a minimally invasive surgery with relatively low risk.”
During the surgery, Kamila’s heart stopped for 33 minutes and the only way doctors got it pumping again was by giving it a hand massage. Kamila said: “I’m not sure exactly what went wrong, but I do know that within half an hour after the surgery, my heart had stopped.”
Specialists from Wythenshawe Hospital’s Heart and Lung Centre were urgently called to the health provider who were performing Kamila’s procedure. She said: “The doctors saved me, but my heart was irreparably damaged. They told my family that I would need a heart transplant – and fast.”
She was sedated for ten days and transported to Wythenshawe Hospital where she woke up unaware of what had happened. Doctors described her as one of the most critically ill patients in the hospital.
“I was in complete shock – my brain couldn’t comprehend it – my world had changed completely. It took me two weeks to understand what had gone on,” Kamila explained. For weeks, Kamila was kept alive using machines that worked in place of her heart – meaning she had no pulse for weeks.
Kamila spent her birthday, Christmas, and New Year ’s Eve in the hospital. Five weeks later she was told a suitable heart became available for transplant. On December 19 2024 Kamila had the transplant operation that lasted ten hours as doctors had to detach her from the life-support machines keeping her alive and doctors estimate that it will take at least a year for Kamila to fully recover.
Kamila said: “I will forever be grateful to the woman and her family who chose to donate her organs. It’s a strange feeling to know my life was saved because someone else died. But I carry a part of her with me, and I want to honour her by living my best life.”
She added: “The doctors said if I made it through the first 24 hours, it would be a huge success. My recovery has been a long and difficult journey, every new morning felt like a blessing. But healing will take time, my chest has been opened six times now, and I will carry the scars for the rest of my life.”
Looking ahead to her recovery, Kamila explained she had been bedridden for so long she has had to learn how to walk again as her muscles had “wasted away”. She added: “Mentally, it has been just as hard as being classified as clinically dead for 33 minutes has left an impact.
“They told me I must be incredibly strong both mentally and physically to have recovered so well. But I owe a lot to my family – Przemek, my fiancé, was by my side every single day, caring for our children and running our household while I fought for my life.”
Kamila has to visit Wythenshawe Hospital weekly for transplant monitoring and has to undergo a biopsy on her neck every two weeks for many more months. But, she vows to keep fighting, despite being “terrified of needles.”
“Despite the challenges, life is a celebration now,” Kamila said. “Every day, my son looks at me and says, ‘Oh, you’re still alive?’ because for so long, it seemed like I wouldn’t make it. I think about my organ donor and her family every single day.
“I can never thank them personally, but I hope to reach out to their family when the time is right. I received the ultimate gift – a second chance at life, I will never take it for granted.”