CROWN PRINCESS COMES TO THE RESCUE OF LITTLE DEJANA

During this year’s traditional Christmas visits to children’s hospitals and orphanages, HRH Crown Princess Katherine was deeply touched when she saw a little girl named Dejana at the University Children Hospital in Belgrade, and she was especially moved by the doctors’ assessment that Dejana had no more than a week left to live. Princess Katherine was deeply moved by the pain Dejana’s parents were going through.

Dejana got a heart infection which hit the aorta and critically damaged the left heart valve. The disease was diagnosed in Sombor, where Dejana was initially treated, and she was immediately transferred to the University Children’s Hospital in Belgrade where she was treated with the highest doses of antibiotics. The infection was spreading fast and the threat of complications was increasing every minute.

The doctor’s board at the hospital came to the conclusion that the only solution was an urgent surgical intervention where the damaged blood valve would be replaced with a donor valve that could be provided from the organ donor’s bank in Brussels. Unfortunately for Dejana, Serbia is not a member of the European Union, and consequently could not yet use tissues and organs from this bank.

HRH Crown Princess Katherine instantly came to the rescue and a plan to call her good friend Dr. Kalangos, who is Director of Cardio Surgery at the University Clinic in Geneva Switzerland, and who has been in Belgrade before at her invitation to perform several very complex surgeries. She found him in Los Angeles where he was operating on two children and Dr. Kalangos promised he would come to help Dejana. He then spoke with Serbian cardio surgeons Dr. Ilić, Dr. Hercog and Prof. Jovanović who explained the situation to him. Soon after, Dr. Kalangos and his very close associate from the Foundation “Heart for Two” Mr. Andreu, found the needed tissue.

Little Dejana’s condition was getting worse from hour to hour. Prof. Ida Jovanovic and the team of cardio surgeons from the University Children’s Hospital were in permanent contact with Dr. Kalangos, updating him on Dejana’s condition, and the surgery was immediately planned for 22 January.

Shocked with the critical condition of Dejana’s and real possibility that she would not live to that day, HRH Crown Princess Katherine made a vital urgent call to appeal for an aircraft. This time she called a dear friend who instantaneously sent one of his private aircrafts to bring Dr Kalangos to Belgrade from Poland, where he was operating.

On 19 January at 7pm, Dr Kalangos arrived in Belgrade from Poland on the private aircraft, with the new valve tissue. Everything was ready for Dr Kalangos at the hospital for the emergency surgery. Dr. Slobodan Ilić, Chief of Cardio Surgery at the University Children’s Hospital assisted Dr. Kalangos with the very delicate surgery. During a four hour dramatic operation Dr. Kalangos removed the infected tissue and successfully implanted the new valve and a part of the aorta. The most difficult part of the surgery was the implanting of coronary arteries because even the smallest damage could cause immediate heart arrest and death.

Little Dejana’s heart started working normally two hours after the beginning of surgery. For Dr Kalangos, that night was the fifth sleepless night in the row, and the end of a week in which he operated in Turkey, Poland, and Serbia.

Dr Kalangos left Belgrade with his team at 5 o’clock in the morning back on the private aircraft, because he had a lecture to hold in the town of Gdansk in Poland and two demo surgeries to perform for 200 Polish cardio-surgeons.

Dejana’s health improved dramatically after the surgery and five days later she was transferred out of intensive care to a regular ward. She is still on antibiotics therapy which will last for another 6 weeks. An emotional visit to Dejana in hospital by Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine took place on Monday, 23 January.

Their Royal Highnesses have closely followed Dejana’s recovery and look forward to see her and her parents at The Royal palace. Princess Katherine wishes to thank everyone who worked together as such a great team to save little Dejana’s life