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Chronicle Live
Chronicle Live
National
Jeremy Armstrong & Kristy Dawson

Toddler kept alive with mobile heart gets transplant at Newcastle hospital - after two year wait

A toddler who became the first child in the UK to use a mobile heart has received a life-saving transplant after a two-year wait.

Grace Westwood made history when she was fitted with a Berlin Heart machine at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. The two-year-old fell seriously ill months after being born with a damaged left ventricle in November 2019.

The Mirror reports how the device kept her alive at the hospital in High Heaton until a heart became available. It also had a battery which enabled her to move around and leave her ward.

Read more: Newcastle couple's heartbreak after 'miracle' baby they spent nine years trying for dies 50 minutes after birth

Earlier this month, a match was found and her family received the call they had been waiting for. Grace, who is from Birmingham and has a six-year-old brother called Josh, has now received a heart transplant.

Her relieved parents Becci Jones and Darren Westwood said a thank you "just wasn’t enough" for the donor family who had saved her life. Darren said of the moment a new heart was found: "It felt surreal. Everyone was in tears." Becci added: "How do you put into words the gift they’ve given us? They’ve lost a child and have given us so much."

Doctors admit that it is rare for children to be on a Berlin Heart machine for so long. Consultant paediatric ­cardiologist Abbas Khushnood said her surviving so long on the machine "gives us more hope for ­children with heart failure to be able to get a transplant."

Chronicle Live previously reported on five families who are waiting for life-saving heart transplants for their children at the hospital. Beatrix Adamson-Archbold, Luke Myles, Ethan Mains, Nour Hussein and Leyla Bell are all currently waiting for a transplant on ward 23.

Beatrix's dad Terry Archbold previously explained how his daughter was also using a Berlin Heart device after she suffered heart failure in May. The 44-year-old said she also suffered a cardiac arrest and they had to "fight to bring her back".

Terry, from Burnopfield, County Durham, said doctors need to keep her condition stable until a new heart becomes available. However sadly there is no guarantee that she will receive one.

He said: "The difficulty with children is you are dealing with the very sensitive topic of the loss of a child. You're looking to parents at the worst possible moment of their lives, when they have lost their child and their whole world is falling apart."

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