UK (London): girl's heart restarted after ten years

"British doctors have revived a 12-year-old girl's dormant heart and removed a donor heart which she had started to reject, hospital officials said late today.

Hannah Clark, who lives in south Wales, underwent the operation on February 20 in London by surgeons advised by heart specialist Sir Magdi Yacoub. Sir Yacoub came out of retirement at the request of the girl's parents, they said.

Hannah had enjoyed good health until November when a cardiologist found during a routine examination that her body was rejecting the organ which Sir Yacoub had transplanted 10 years ago in a life-saving operation.

She had been suffering from cardiomyopathy, which made her heart double in size and (the heart) threatened to fail within a year.

'We are delighted that Hannah is doing so well,' said a spokesman for the cardiac team at Great Street Ormond Hospital. 'We believe that this combination of circumstances is the first for children or adults in the UK.'

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: 'This is an exciting and important event. Surgeons like BHF Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub have thought for some time that if a heart is failing because of acute inflammation, it might be able to recover if rested.'

'This seems to be exactly what has happened in this case,' Prof Weissberg said.

'The piggy back heart allowed the patient's own heart to take a rest'.

Today the approach would be to implant a mechanical heart, called a ventricular assist device, to take over the work of the inflamed heart in the hope that the heart will recover and the device can be taken out after a few months. 'Ten years ago such devices were not sufficiently reliable, which is why Hannah received a donor heart alongside her own,' Prof Weissberg said.

The patient's mother Elizabeth Clark said surgeons had been initially reluctant to remove the donor heart and reconnect the dormant one.

With her own heart back working, Hannah no longer needs to take the strong anti-rejection drugs she was on while she had the donor heart. She has also battled lymph cancer for the past few years but is currently in remission."

Source:
News.com.au