D'Zhana Simmons survives four months without a heart

FOR a miraculous four months, 14-year-old D'Zhana Simmons lived without a heart.

For 118 days, the strong-willed teen survived on a custom-built artificial blood-pumping device while she waited for a transplant.

The doctor who adapted the pumps said he believed she was the first child to use the device.

Finally yesterday, with a new heart, D'Zhana left her Miami hospital - and went for a day-long boat trip with her five siblings.

During her long wait she had a blinking photocopier-size ventricular-assist device attached to her chest to pump and cleanse blood.

"It was like I was a fake person, like I didn't really exist. I was just here," she said at Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami, "But I know that I really was here."

The modern science miracle began last year when Simmons learned that her enlarged heart was too weak to pump enough blood, a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy.

Surgeons at the hospital performed a transplant on July 2, but two days later the heart malfunctioned and had to be removed.

"In the past, this situation could have been lethal," said Dr Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.

Instead, Dr Ricci modified the Thoratec Corp-made ventricular-assist device, which are commonly used for only hours at a time, into a long-term artificial heart.

"She essentially lived for 118 days without a heart, with her circulation supported only by two blood pumps," Dr Ricci said.

A second transplant on October 29 was successful.

D'Zhana's mother, Twolla Anderson, said: "I truly believe it's a miracle. I give my thanks to my buddies. I love the transplant team."