Wednesday, 4/16/97 Girl succumbs to heart disease at UCLA Med
Center Special protein that keeps tumors alive could be key to
cure
By Hannah Miller Daily Bruin Contributor One of UCLA Medical
Center’s frailest patients died Tuesday morning of heart failure.
Miyuki Monobe, an 8-year-old Japanese girl who came to Los Angeles
last month in hopes of finding a replacement for her defective
heart, died early Tuesday while awaiting a transplant. Miyuki died
of congenital heart disease at 4:08 a.m., said UCLA Medical Center
spokeswoman Lois Fletcher. Funeral arrangements were not
immediately known. The family, staying at the Tiverton House while
their daughter remained in critical condition, requested that her
doctors not speak to the public. Miyuki went into cardiac arrest
and was placed on a heart-lung machine just days after her March 29
arrival. Miyuki, of Shinagawa, was born with a large hole in her
heart and a narrow aorta. The condition strains lungs, kidneys and
other organs due to the heart’s inability to pump blood
efficiently. Miyuki had been in and out of hospitals all her life.
The transplant would have been her fifth heart operation, a
last-ditch effort. UCLA contacted her doctor at Tokyo Children’s
Hospital, who then told Miyuki’s mother that a transplant might be
her only chance. Miyuki came to the United States because heart
transplants are virtually nonexistent in Japan. Brain death is not
legally accepted in Japan. Instead, death is recognized only after
the patient’s heart stops beating. But at that point, the organ
deteriorates quickly and becomes unsuitable for transplantation.
Miyuki’s case had been widely publicized in the effort to reform
Japan’s legal definition of death. The last heart transplant in
Japan was performed 30 years ago. The Diet, Japan’s parliament, is
currently considering a bill to change the medical definition of
death. Over 3,000 physicians have lobbied for this regulatory
change. Because of the widespread publicity, the Monobe family had
received donations amounting to $570,000 to pay for Miyuki’s
operation. Miyuki had been on the United Network for Organ Sharing
list for 15 days. She was made a "Status 1" patient due to her
precarious condition but was listed after others with similar needs
who were evaluated earlier. Doctors had said previously that Miyuki
could not stay on the heart-lung machine indefinitely because of
its side effects. Pediatric donor hearts are especially difficult
to find. Miyuki was one of four Japanese pediatric patients over
the last four years to come to UCLA for this treatment. With
reports from Daily Bruin wire services.