Cascade 5-year-old faces long recovery after heart transplant

Missoulian |  By SANJAY TALWANI
Carla Morgan Wright is a silly 5-year-old princess who loves singing and dancing and entertaining others, and she likes telling her story to people.

“She’ll just walk up to complete strangers and be like, ‘Hi, I’m Carla and I have half a heart,’” her mother, Jen Wright, said by telephone from Seattle last week.

Carla, who normally lives in Cascade with her parents, Jen and Bobby, now has to update that story. She now has a full heart, the result of a transplant Nov. 15 at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

But while the notification of a donor organ the day before answered the family’s prayers, it’s a long road to recovery from such a procedure.

Since the surgery, Carla has endured issues in her lungs and brain. She’s had reactions to the drugs that are designed to keep her from rejecting the new heart. She was off a ventilator and back on. For a time, she appeared to be dazed and hallucinating.

Other times, she’s been acting more like herself, Jen said.

Maybe most promising of all, the new heart seems to be strong. Jen can feel it beating the way most people’s do.

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