I was dead for half an hour

MUM'S 'SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE' AFTER HEART STOPPED DURING SURGERY

- By CHARLIE FENTON and OLIVIA WILLIAMS

A MUM was “dead” for 33 minutes and had no pulse for six weeks after her heart stopped during surgery.

Kamila Jaroslawska was hooked up to a machine that kept her blood circulating before a donor heart was found.

Her condition was so severe she was placed at the top of the UK’s urgent heart transplant waiting list.

After a complex 10-hour procedure Kamila, 35, was successfully given a new heart and a second chance at life. The mum-of-three, from Wirral, said: “I had no pulse for six weeks while machines did my heart's job.

“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 was saved by doctors from Wythenshawe Hospital following complications with a heart procedure. She said she was fit and healthy before the surgery last November.

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 a leaky heart valve.