...::SpeAch by DatuK saLmaN a.k.a PaK LaNg::...

Envoy: I was saved by heart transplant



PUTRAJAYA: Heart transplant patient and Malaysian High Com­missioner to Australia Datuk Salman Ahmad has urged all Malaysians to pledge their organs for donation.

Salman should know its importance. Three years ago, while he was the Malaysian Ambassa­dor to the Czech Republic, Salman collapsed at his residence after hosting a dinner for the then Natural Resources and Environ­ment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid.

Doctors had predicted that he would survive for only another two days.

“The doctors at a hospital in Prague said there was nothing that could be done for me. They even presented my wife with the hospital bill the day after I was admitted. But I survived. It was a miracle,” said Salman at the Seventh Heads of Mission Conference yesterday.

While he was unconscious in the hospital for seven days, his wife called up Malaysian ambassador to Moscow Datuk Mohamad Khalis Ali to explain her predicament.

Khalis, who received the call at about 3am, immediately flew to Prague and was shocked to see Sal­man’s condition deteriorating.

“I was told by a Thai diplomat to move Sal­man to another hospital with heart facilities but the doctor who was attending to him refused to do so until I told his wife Datin Tengku Karina Yusof to convince the doctor to allow the transfer,” Khalis said.

Salman had to undergo two operations to fix heart assist devices before he received a real heart.

“During the period of waiting for a new heart, I went home twice a week. They made me exercise and continue with life as usual,” said Salman.

When a donor was found after three and a half months, Salman went through a five-hour heart transplant operation and was up the next morning eating a breakfast of bread and cheese.