{"id":11646,"date":"2025-02-14T14:19:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T04:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/uncategorized\/transplant-patient-rhys"},"modified":"2025-02-14T15:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T05:21:09","slug":"transplant-patient-rhys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/news\/transplant-patient-rhys","title":{"rendered":"Transplant patient Rhys takes heart as he makes a return to sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:89.44rem;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h1>Transplant patient Rhys takes heart as he makes a return to sport<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_11647\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11647\" class=\"wp-image-11647 size-fusion-600 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Rhys Hoole following his heart transplant.\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-225x150.jpg 225w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/rhys-hoole.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/400;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-11647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rhys Hoole following his heart transplant.<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>It\u2019s a love story for the ages \u2013 25-year-old Rhys Hoole is reunited with his great love, touch rugby, thanks to a brand-new heart.<\/h4>\n<p>Almost two years ago, a sport-loving Rhys was racing down the TRL field when he suffered a cardiac arrest, sending him down an arduous road to recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Rhys underwent an hour of CPR on the touch field, before being diagnosed with heart failure, spending almost two years back and forwards from hospital, undergoing six open heart surgeries, and bouncing on and off a transplant list.<\/p>\n<p>He went on ECMO, a form of life support when lung or heart function is affected, and then underwent the gruelling heart transplant process where he received The Prince Charles Hospital\u2019s 500th donated heart.<\/p>\n<p>Receiving a new heart meant Rhys spent more than 80 days in a hospital bed recovering, where he lost 20kgs and had to learn to walk again.<\/p>\n<p>But with determination and the efforts of his treating team, Rhys got a happily-ever-after, with the commercial property manager now back to playing his beloved sports of tennis, golf and footy, training for the Transplant Games, and soon returning to work.<\/p>\n<p>A stoic Rhys reflects on getting his life back thanks to his donated heart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wasn\u2019t feeling well for months before it happened, but things got worse quickly after the cardiac arrest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been through so much, but I\u2019m ready get back into it because this heart saved me, and I\u2019m going to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TPCH heart transplant patient Rhys Hoole has been reunited with his great love, sport, thanks to a second chance at life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":11647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11646"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11651,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11646\/revisions\/11651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/tpch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}