IN JAMAICA (INSPIRING STORY) : Yanique Chin, 18 y-o adamant she will stay alive...Glenmuir High School teen battles rare heart condition known as truncus arteriousus, in which the heart was not properly formed....“I believe I am going to live a long long time. I am very positive.” Chin said that she wanted her story to be told in a positive way and be inspiring to other people who may have similar and other life threatening illnesses.

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, January 25, 2015   

Yanique Chin has been defying medical science by simply staying alive.

At three months old Chin’s mother was told that she would not live beyond three years old. When she got to three, she was then told six, followed by 12 and on and on it went.

18 y-o Yanique Chin

On New Year ’s Day, the Glenmuir High School fifth former celebrated her 18th birthday and believes she has many more ahead.

Chin was born with a rare condition known as truncus arteriousus, in which the heart was not properly formed. With a normal heart there are two main blood vessels leaving the heart — the aorta, carrying blood to the body, and the pulmonary artery that branches immediately to carry blood to each lung.

Instead of having a separate pulmonary artery and aorta, each with its own three-leafed valves, Chin’s heart has only one blood vessel or trunk leaving the heart, which then branches into blood vessels that go to the lungs and the body, thus preventing proper breathing and blood circulation. This can collapse at anytime.

(L)Yanique Chin hugs her brothers Essien and Conroy
 Chin after reaching home from school on Thursday & (R)Yanique
 Chin hugs her mother Patricia Nelson at their home in
 Clarendon on Thursday.

“Three years come and passed. They say I had until 12 — 12 come and passed. Now I am 18,” a smiling Chin told the Jamaica Observer at her Clarendon home on Thursday. “I believe I am going to live a long long time. I am very positive.”

Chin said that she wanted her story to be told in a positive way and be inspiring to other people who may have similar and other life threatening illnesses.

“Mine is rare, my doctor say only two other persons that she knows of in Jamaica who have it. So I am the third one. But you have other persons with problems close to mine,” she lamented.

Despite the doctor’s diagnosis, Chin admitted to not realising just how serious and life threatening her condition was until she was 14. Now that she is aware, she ensures that she complies with the doctor’s orders, and continues to hope. more