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Welsh Girl's Heart Takes Over From Transplant
Hannah Clark, 12, was given a donor heart 10 years ago but also kept her own, which has now recovered.
(By Barry Batchelor -- Associated Press)
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A team of German surgeons reported in 2000 that out of 23 patients with Hannah's condition who had received the devices and had them removed up to two years later, 13 survived with their own recovered hearts.
John W. C. Entwistle III, a heart surgeon at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, said he believed there had been other cases like Hannah's, but he said they were extremely rare.
"I am sure that there are cases in which the native heart has recovered after a period of support, but I have never seen a report myself," he said.
Yacoub, a renowned heart specialist who performed the original transplant, came out of retirement to advise the team at Great Ormond Street. He told the BBC he was delighted he had decided to leave Hannah's diseased heart inside her body a decade ago.
"At the time, we had the idea that she had this very severe muscle disease and there was the outside possibility that her heart would recover," he said. "That was the idea and it worked out, so that was wonderful. Now she is a happy little girl with her own normal heart. The complications have all gone. This is a very happy ending."
Hannah's mother, Elizabeth Clark, told reporters that the operation, which had been expected to take at least eight hours, was finished in just four. "They also said she could be in intensive care for weeks, maybe months -- they just didn't know because it was the first time it had been done," she said. "Hannah recovered so well she was able to come home within five days."
Clark said her daughter was looking forward to going back to school next week. Hannah has also recently been suffering from lymphoid cancer but is currently in remission.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," her mother said.
Brown reported from Washington.
