Evening Herald
Friday 25 May 2012
By Michael Day
Last-minutes co-operation between doctors and medical authorities in Italy and the US enabled surgeons in Rome to transplant the world’s smallest artificial heart – and save the life of a 16-month-old baby.
The tiny titanium device, weighing just 11 grams, was given to the infant in a pioneering eight-hour operation in March, surgeons at the Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital announced this week.
TRANSPLANT
The decision to transplant the experimental US-designed heart made it possible for the baby to survive for 13 days before receiving a real heart.
“The operation was extremely complex and the child subsequently underwent a heart transplant”.
“Now currently, two months after surgery, the child is doing well and is in excellent health,” said Dr Antonion Amodeo, the surgeon who led the complicated procedure.
“The parents of the baby were “ecstatic” over the success of the pioneering procedure, he added.
The infant had been suffering from a form of heart failure known as dilated cardiomyopathy.
“The prognosis of such a complication is very poor,” added Dr Amodeo.
“So the only solution was to intervene using this experimental prototype.”