Nov 20 2008
Teen lives 4 months with no heart
Miami - D’Zhana Simmons, 14-years-old, who had gone 118 days with no heart is being released on W
ednesday. She have had two heart transplants and survived with artificial heart pumps.
Her parents found out that she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to sufficiently pump blood; therefore, they took her to Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami to get a heart transplant. The new heart wasn’t working probably and could have possibly ruptured so it was removed.
The doctors did what haven’t been done before, they subtituted an artificial pumping device to keep her blood flowing until her second transplant. Artificial heart pumping has never been used on a pediatrics patient because there are fewer options, and pediatric patients typically don’t have life threatening illness that requires such investment.
The device is usually used with the original heart still attached and the purpose is to assist the chamber in circulating blood. However, in D’Zhana’s case, this artificial pump was used with a subtituted heart that kept her alive for 4 months. It was a difficulty for her to perform daily actions such as taking a short stroll because it would require 4 people to help steer the machine that was the external part of the pumping devices. The doctors did a second transplant on October 29.
D’Zhana, filled with emotion, said she’s grateful for small things and thanked the surgeons fo helping her. She would be able to do most things that a teenager do, but she will also be on a lifelong medication to keep her body from rejecting the donated heart. There’s a 50-50 chance that she would need another transplant before she turns 30.
