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13/04/2006
Heart operation girl 'recovering well'
A 12-year-old girl has made medical history after doctors successfully restarted her own heart after her body began to reject a transplanted heart she received 10 years ago.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital acted when Hannah Clark's body started to show signs that it was beginning to reject the donor heart.
Surgeons at the London hospital reconnected the dormant heart, which was never removed from her body.
Hannah, of Mountain Ash in south Wales, is now said to be "recovering well" following the operation.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, who performed Hannah's original heart transplant when she was two, advised surgeons who carried out the operation on 20 February.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, 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. The piggyback 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 along side her own.
"This is a great example of how a pioneering and novel approach to a medical problem can lead to surprising results that tell us a lot about how some heart diseases progress.
"In the past, patients with inflamed hearts either died or were transplanted before their own hearts had any chance of recovery."
Hannah had received the donor heart as she was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and in severe cases can cause heart failure.
Doctors had thought that Hannah, who has recently completed a course of chemotherapy for lymphatic cancer and is in remission, may have had to stay in intensive care for a prolonged period, but she recovered so well from the operation that she was allowed home after just five days.
(SP)
Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital acted when Hannah Clark's body started to show signs that it was beginning to reject the donor heart.
Surgeons at the London hospital reconnected the dormant heart, which was never removed from her body.
Hannah, of Mountain Ash in south Wales, is now said to be "recovering well" following the operation.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, who performed Hannah's original heart transplant when she was two, advised surgeons who carried out the operation on 20 February.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, 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. The piggyback 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 along side her own.
"This is a great example of how a pioneering and novel approach to a medical problem can lead to surprising results that tell us a lot about how some heart diseases progress.
"In the past, patients with inflamed hearts either died or were transplanted before their own hearts had any chance of recovery."
Hannah had received the donor heart as she was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and in severe cases can cause heart failure.
Doctors had thought that Hannah, who has recently completed a course of chemotherapy for lymphatic cancer and is in remission, may have had to stay in intensive care for a prolonged period, but she recovered so well from the operation that she was allowed home after just five days.
(SP)
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