A MUM who had a pioneering heart and liver swap faces a race against time for more transplant surgery as her health deteriorates.
Tammy Clark, 30, who had the double transplant 13 years ago, is now making regular hospital visits after doctors told her she needed a new liver.
The mum-of-one, of Rhoden Road, Oswaldtwistle, said: "They haven’t given me an exact time scale but I need a liver within the next few months or so.
"I haven’t asked them directly because I would rather not know. I just feel it within myself.
"I’ve been staying in hospitals because my liver doesn’t work. It fills up with fluid so I have to have treatment and I’m having that done about every four weeks."
Tammy, who has a three-year-old daughter Libby, was born with a rare congenital heart defect and had a one-in-a-million condition where her blood had to be cleared of excess cholesterol by a special machine.
After waiting 10 months, a donor was found and, aged 17, she underwent a lifesaving transplant at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in the first operation of its kind to take place there.
She was told last year that she may need another heart and liver transplant because her body was rejecting the organs. Doctors have since said she just requires a new liver.
Tammy took up a role as a nurse in Bolton after being inspired by her own frequent visits to hospital. However, due to her ill health, she has been off work since November.
She was put on to the waiting list for a new liver in April and is taking a cocktail of medication including immuno-suppressants and strong painkillers.
She said: "I have been really ill. I make regular visits to the Royal Blackburn Hospital and to Newcastle for check-ups, but I am in pain pretty much all the time. I have deteriorated since Christmas and I do feel weaker. I am not allowed to drive any more, so I have to rely on other people taking me places and I just look like an old woman. I spent a lot of time looking after my little girl and trying to keep things as normal for her as I can."
She added: "I do my shopping online and I have a nice lady who comes to help me with my cleaning."
The former Rhyddings High School pupil was brought up in Spring Street, Accrington, and later moved to Brookside View, Oswaldtwistle.
In the past, she and her family spearheaded an appeal to raise £20,000 for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, where she had her initial treatment.
She added: "My work colleagues have been really supportive and fantastic. My friends at work even got me a webbook so I could see my daughter when I went into hospital to have the operation.
"I would like to thank everyone, especially the staff at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, as it has been great what they have done for me."
