Heart-lung transplant patient catches up

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 9

Heart-lung transplant patient catches up

PA Invercargill Six months to the day since she received a new heart and lungs at Harefield Hospital, England, Miss Ann Crawford is catching up on 10 years missed experiences.

Miss Crawford has been back at her parents’ home near Invercargill since October when she returned from Britain as New Zealand’s first heartlung transplant patient.

Three months on, she has notched up several firsts — seeing in the New Year at a party, eating shellfish and hamburgers, playing video games, cycling, and having the odd drink.

“This year I am going to do everything I want to do and just experiment," she said yesterday. Because she has been in and out of hospital since she was 14, there is no “old life" to return to, and most experiences are new.

“I was advised that if I didn’t know what I wanted to do, do everything.” Because of the risk of infection in her new organs, she has to be more careful than most about hygiene, particularly in food. But minor restrictions aside, there are few limits to what Miss Crawford may do in her first real year of freedom. High on the list of priorities is an autobiography which she intends to write with the help of a “Southland Times” journalist, Alan Black. She admitted that some of her emotions needed exercise, after being tightly controlled during 10 years of increasingly debilitating Illness. “There is more scope for happiness now," she said. “These last two months, with the weather being nice, I have been on

a real high.” Only someone who suffered years of restricted lungs can know the pleasure of having an enormous yawn and stretch in the morning, Miss Crawford said. She spent last week on holiday in Central Otago and revelled in the sunshine and freedom. But even outside Invercargill, she found her celebrity status impossible to shake off. From the shop assistants in Queenstown to two small children who sought her autograph in the main street of Lawrence, she was often recognised and looked at with curiosity. “People expect and want to see the fragile image,” she said, The fragility is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. She hinted there might be some more changes in store during the next year.