Girl's own heart restarted after donor heart removed

Associated Press
Seattle Post Intelligencer
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London (UK):
A girl who was given a second heart 10 years ago had the extra organ removed after her own heart grew strong enough to pump on its own, her doctor said Thursday.
Hannah Clark suffered from cardiomyopathy, a condition in which her heart became inflamed and weak, and doctors transplanted a donor heart to "piggyback" on her diseased one, said Dr. Victor Tsang, one of the 12-year-old's surgeons.
Hannah developed severe immune system problems recently, and doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital decided to remove the donor heart so they could take Hannah off the drugs she needed to keep her body from rejecting it.
The doctors determined that Hannah's own heart had recovered sufficiently to work on its own, Tsang said.
Tsang said Hannah made a quick recovery and went home less than a week after the February operation.
The hospital said it believed Hannah's operation was the first of its kind in Britain.
Apr 13, 2006