Breakthrough ‘piggy-back’ heart saves life of baby girl
Published: February 26, 2006
SURGEONS have saved the life of a critically-ill baby girl by using a pioneering mechanical ‘piggy back heart’ to keep her alive until a transplant donor was found, it was to be announced today.
Claudia Twiby’s condition was getting worse and doctors were running out of options when she was given a ‘Berlin heart’ last November.
Four weeks later she received a new donated heart and is now back at home in Brighton with her parents Jodie Lansdale, 32, and Shaun Twiby, 42.
Lansdale, a history teacher, said her 18-month-old daughter was once again the “happy and smiling” child she had been before she became sick.
Claudia was only the second small child to be fitted with a Berlin heart at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, which first carried out the operation in November 2004. The device takes over the functions of the patient’s sick heart until doctors find a suitable donor organ.
Lansdale spoke of the turmoil caused when Claudia suddenly became ill just after her first birthday, and her joy when a heart was found.
She said: “We felt very lucky that she got the heart so quickly. There is a shortage of organs, particularly for small children.
“I think it’s really important that people do talk about organ donation because you never know - you always assume that bad things like having a sick child never happen to you.
“When it does happen, it’s not really the right time for people to be discussing issues like organ donation. I hope the people who donated the heart get some comfort from the fact that they saved her life.”
Claudia’s mother was driving her to a childminder in September last year when she noticed that her daughter was sleepy and her breathing laboured.
The childminder later called Lansdale to say she had taken Claudia to her doctor, who had diagnosed that the child had bronchiolitis, but it was nothing to worry about.
When Claudia’s condition did not improve she was taken to hospital, where the doctors quickly became concerned and admitted her.
There followed an agonising two-and-a-half months as her parents learnt that their daughter in fact had dilated cardiomyopathy - a heart muscle disease which can lead to severe heart failure.
Claudia was first taken to Guy’s Hospital in London, but when she was transferred to Great Ormond Street to be put on a ventilator, staff were blunt about her chances of survival.
Lansdale recalled: “The sister on the ward at Guy’s said, ‘Do you want us to call a chaplain and get her a blessing before she goes?’ It was horrible.”
She did not take up the nurse’s offer and was given fresh hope when Carin Van Doorn, an honorary consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Great Ormond Street, told her about the Berlin heart procedure.
The operation to fit a Berlin heart was carried out by Van Doorn on November 1.
Lansdale said: “I remember looking at her chest and thinking it was the last time I would see it without a big scar down it. But it was exciting because I felt it bought a bit more time.
“A few days after that she was beginning to sit up again, smiling again and reacting to people reading her books.
“She was on the Berlin heart for nearly a month and began to behave like a normal child again. She was beginning to sit up again and was trying to crawl.”
A donor heart was found on November 27 and the transplant operation took place the next day.
It was a success and Claudia was discharged in time to spend Christmas at home with her parents and three older sisters - aged 11, nine and two.
But Lansdale said Claudia was still vulnerable and would have to take medication to stop her rejecting the donated organ for the rest of her life.
A Berlin heart costs about £41,000 per patient, and comes in different sizes so it can be used for children as young as two months, as well as adults.
The device is used in over 60 hospitals worldwide, although only in Great Ormond Street, Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital and Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in the UK. Internationally, it has already been used on 158 children. The longest a child has stayed on the device was for 15 months, in Hong Kong.
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