An emotional D'Zhana Simmons cries after thanking her doctors at a press conferrence in Miami.What would someone call it?--a miracle or a gift from "The Almighty"? Well whatever you say, it's true that D’Zhana Simmons, a 14 year old teenager from South Carolina have successfully survived for 118 days with no heart beating after having had two transplants and stayed alive with man-made heart pumps, but no heart, for four months between the transplants.
This is the first time ever someone at so young age has been kept alive without a heart for this length of time. When she was questioned about how she felt living without a heart, the girl's answer was like this, "It was like I was a fake person, like I didn't really exist. I was just here.But I knew that I really was here, and I did live without a heart".The girl was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and does not pump blood efficiently.
She had her first heart transplant on July 2 at Miami's Holtz Children's Hospital but the new organ failed to work accurately and was promptly removed and from there her race against the time started.In place of a real heart, substitute heart chambers were implanted and connected to two pumps tailor made by a Californian company which kept her blood flowing as she fought a host of serious complications including kidney and liver failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and breathing problems. Finally she built up enough strength to enable doctors to implant another heart on October 29.
Although this sort of treatments are mostly given to adults to keep them alive but D'Zhana is the first child to receive it as it was a life-threatening situation for her."I truly believe it's a miracle," said D'Zhana's mother, Twolla Anderson. The doctors said things are getting better after the second transplant, as she will be able to do most thing teenagers do, like going to school or going out.Her prognosis is good, although there is a 50 per cent chance she will need another transplant before she turns 30. She was released from hospital on Wednesday.
We all wish this child the very best of luck and hope she lives long and fine and overcomes every obstacles on her way of life.It's once again proved that everything is in the hands of the Supreme Almighty.May the Almighty Bless everybody.
This is the first time ever someone at so young age has been kept alive without a heart for this length of time. When she was questioned about how she felt living without a heart, the girl's answer was like this, "It was like I was a fake person, like I didn't really exist. I was just here.But I knew that I really was here, and I did live without a heart".The girl was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and does not pump blood efficiently.
She had her first heart transplant on July 2 at Miami's Holtz Children's Hospital but the new organ failed to work accurately and was promptly removed and from there her race against the time started.In place of a real heart, substitute heart chambers were implanted and connected to two pumps tailor made by a Californian company which kept her blood flowing as she fought a host of serious complications including kidney and liver failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and breathing problems. Finally she built up enough strength to enable doctors to implant another heart on October 29.
Although this sort of treatments are mostly given to adults to keep them alive but D'Zhana is the first child to receive it as it was a life-threatening situation for her."I truly believe it's a miracle," said D'Zhana's mother, Twolla Anderson. The doctors said things are getting better after the second transplant, as she will be able to do most thing teenagers do, like going to school or going out.Her prognosis is good, although there is a 50 per cent chance she will need another transplant before she turns 30. She was released from hospital on Wednesday.
We all wish this child the very best of luck and hope she lives long and fine and overcomes every obstacles on her way of life.It's once again proved that everything is in the hands of the Supreme Almighty.May the Almighty Bless everybody.