Marcel de Jesus probably had a year left in him when he was plucked from a health clinic in East Timor by Rotary and flown to Australia for urgent surgery on a malfunctioning heart.
The 19-year-old had contracted TB which had stunted his growth and resulted in major heart scarring and poor circulation.
Monash Heart cardiologist Dr Andrew Cochrane, who does pro bono work in East Timor annually, felt Marcel deserved a real chance at life and operated on him last month at the Monash Medical Centre.
"He was going downhill and his life expectancy was down to about one year," Dr Cochrane said on Wednesday.
Dr Cochrane says there are many people in East Timor with heart disease and says it can just come down to luck for those wanting operations in Australia.
"It can be a matter of luck, of seeing a particular doctor in a particular clinic at the right time," Dr Cochrane said.
"We knew we could do the operation with Marcel without it being too complicated."
Through an interpreter from his hospital bed, Marcel said he feared the operation would kill him.
Still feeling pain in his chest after the surgery, Marcel said that before the operation he worked as a gardener in the TB clinic he attended but was very weak and lethargic.
When he was offered the chance to undergo the life-saving operation he felt "happy and scared".
"I didn't want to come because I was scared - I didn't think I would survive the operation," he said.
But after some encouragement and words of support he took the step that has saved his life.
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