Community Corner

CL South Senior Recovering After Heart Transplant

Mackenzie Tannhauser, 17, underwent heart transplant surgery last week after receiving a much-needed donor heart.

One week after receiving a donor heart, 17-year-old Mackenzie Tannhauser is talking a bit to her parents, breathing with the help of an oxygen tube and very sore from her operation.

“Her breathing is weak,” said Karen Tannhauser, Mackenzie Tannhauser's mother. “If she breathes, it hurts, but she is doing well. The doctors are pleased.”

Karen said the pain is a result of the open heart surgery her daughter underwent last Wednesday, Sept. 7, at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The Crystal Lake South High School senior has since been recovering in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

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Mackenzie had been waiting for a donor heart since Dec. 13, 2010, when she was listed as a Level II donor candidate. Level II means a patient is able to function through day-to-day activities, Karen Tannhauser said.

For the past two years, the Crystal Lake family knew Mackenzie would eventually need a new heart because hers was enlarged and not functioning properly.

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“Even after the doctors placed Mackenzie on the list last year, she was going to school and getting through her day,” Karen Tannhauser said.

“But then on Aug. 20, she was coughing a lot, and she had fluid in her lungs. The doctors said it was time and listed her as Level 1A and she had to stay in the hospital.”

At first, Mackenzie was disappointed because she didn’t want to miss the start of her senior year. But, her mother and father, Ward Tannhausr, convinced her that getting the surgery out of the way now might mean Mackenzie could return to school after the holidays.

“There are a lot of things happening that second part of senior year, and she doesn’t want to miss those,” Karen Tannhauser said.

Donor Match Found for Mackenzie

On Sept. 6, Mackenzie learned a donor heart had been found.

She videotaped the news from her hospital bed. , which appeared on YouTube and the Children's Memorial Hospital's website, and showed viewers Mackenzie’s excitement about going into surgery the next morning.

“Wasn’t she something else?” Karen said. “She did that on her own. We thought our wait in the hospital would be months.”

In March, representatives from Children’s Memorial Hospital had approached Mackenzie about chronicling her transplant experience. They gave her a video camera and asked her to record the good times as well as the bad times, the doctors appointments and more. 

The collection of video footage appears on the hospital's website and and on YouTube and is titled “Diary of a Teenager on a Transplant List."

“They even took footage of the surgery,” Karen Tannhausr said. “They said when the doctors removed Mackenzie’s old heart and set it on the table, it continued beating and it still had the wires from Mackenzie’s pacemaker sticking out of it.”

Heart Troubles Start at Young Age

Mackenzie’s heart troubles began when she was just 8 years old and, during a routine doctor’s visit, found to have ventricular tachycardia, Karen Tannhauser said. 

The condition meant that, for reasons never determined, Mackenzie’s heart had “lots of extra beats.”

“She was given medicine over the years to control it, but when she was in the eighth grade at Lundahl, she had a 7.5-minute-long seizure. After that, doctors gave McKenzie a defibrillator and a year later she got a pacemaker," Karen Tannhauser said. 

It was after those two procedures when Mackenzie’s heart swelled from the trauma, Karen Tannhauser said. The bigger her heart grew, the less it functioned properly. Doctors were concerned that eventually, the condition would affect other organs in Mackenzie’s body.

“We had about two years to digest all this,” Karen Tannhauser said.

“The doctors have been saying since Mackenzie was 14 that she would need a new heart. It’s still surreal. I think the first year, I was crying all the time," she said. "I finally gave it up to God one day, and I felt at peace and I knew she’d be OK.”

Moving Forward

From here, the Tannhausers waits patiently as Mackenzie begins the road to recovery with the help of her parents and younger brothers, Reese, 15, a sophomore at , and Riley, 11, a sixth-grader at .

When she’s ready, Mackenzie will move to the Kohl’s Sterile House, located near the hospital.

Karen said the family is not certain when Mackenzie can return to school, but that her daughter had already begun working on schoolwork last week from her hospital bed.

“She’s pretty smart,” Karen said. “I think she’ll be able to catch up.”


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