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Nov 19, 2008 11:02 pm US/Eastern
Teenage Girl Kept Alive With Artificial Heart
D'Zhana Simmons Survived With A Custom-Made Artificial Heart
Artificial Hearts Are Not Normally Used On Pediatric Patients
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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D'Zhana Simmons received two heart transplants and survived on an artificial heart for the 118 days in between the first and second transplant.
CBS
A 14-year-old South Carolina girl is finally going home, after having two heart transplants in the past four months, and surviving on an artificial heart for the 118 days in between. Surgeons at Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami believe this is the first time that two pumping devices have been used to temporarily replace the heart of a pediatric patient.
D'Zhana Simmons' heart trouble began earlier this year, when she began having a pain on her left side. After blood work and other tests came back normal, doctors found she was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where a person's heart becomes weakened and enlarged and does not pump blood efficiently.
On July 2nd, D'Zhana Simmons had a heart transplant but the organ didn't function and the donated organ had to be removed. Doctors kept her alive with a custom-made artificial heart until her second heart transplant last month.
"The machine replaced the right ventricle and the first pump was put here and the left ventricle was replaced by the second pump and kept the circulation going and the blood pumped," said Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Dr. Marco Ricci.
But before D'Zhana could go under the knife for her second heart transplant, she suffered renal failure. She ended up having to be put on a respirator, but gradually showed enough strength to get her second donor heart.
The second transplant took place on October 29, a full 118 days after the artificial heart was implanted. The next day, she received a new kidney as well.
"It was scary because you never knew if something was going to go wrong. But I am so thankful for the doctors, my buddies and all that they've done for her," said D'Zhana's mother, Twolla Anderson.
In a soft voice she told
CBS 4's Liv Davalos that she felt better. "I feel stronger and I can walk," D'Zhana said.
D'Zhanna and her mother will stay at the Ronald Mcdonald house for two months so she can be closely monitored.
Meantime, her father and her five brothers and sisters will move to Miami so she can be close to her doctors. D'Zhanna is looking forward to the future and plans on celebrating her fifteenth birthday this Saturday by going on a boat ride at Bayside.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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