Audrey Edwards
The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: One was bursting to answer questions while the other seemed introverted.

Tee Hui Yi excitedly gushed about how she wanted to meet two of her idols: songbird Datuk Siti Nurhaliza and Akademi Fantasia finalist Lotter from Sabah.

Lang Kong Akon was bashful when National Heart Institute (IJN) mechanical heart programme director Dr Mohd Ezani Mohd Taib ribbed him about being single and wanting to find a life partner.

Hui Yi and Lang Kong made their first media appearance in IJN yesterday after their respective transplant operations.

However, 14-year-old Hui Yi and 39-year-old Lang Kong were grateful to their donors and families for having given them a second shot at life.

“I want to thank the donor and his parents. They have saved my life,” was Lang Kong’s reply while Hui Yi said: “Thank you very much. I am really better.”

Hui Yi underwent a second heart transplant on Oct 5 after her body rejected the first heart transplant the previous day.

Lang Kong received his lungs from the donor whose heart Hui Yi’s body had rejected.

“I want to go back in time to celebrate Chinese New Year,” Hui Yi told reporters at the physiotherapy department.

She was also impatient to get back to school, saying she wanted to visit as many places as she could once she was discharged.

Lang Kong said he could breathe much better after the operation. He was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2003.

He had been on the waiting list for new lungs for more than a year. Prior to the surgery, the machine operator from Sarawak was treated at the Institute of Respiratory Medicine.

Dr Ezani said Lang Kong was undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation to strengthen his body, breathing and muscles.

Lang Kong was able to do “very heavy physical exercises” such as climbing stairs and cycling, he added.

He is in the normal ward and his body has not shown any signs of organ rejection. Doctors hope to discharge him by next week.

Dr Ezani expects Hui Yi to be transferred out of the intensive care unit by next week; and possibly discharged between four and six weeks.

She is also being tube fed with high calorie liquid to help her gain weight and speed up her recovery.