By February 2006, the reduced doses of immunosuppressive drugs were interfering with the donor heart's function: Hannah was near kidney failure, was having difficulty breathing and at one point her family was told she had less than 12 hours to live.
Yacoub and Dr. Victor Tsang of the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London decided to remove the donor heart and stop the drugs altogether.
Hannah, now 16, has fully recovered from her cancer, her heart is functioning normally, and she is able to carry out all the activities of a teenage girl.
Today, children with weakened hearts are occasionally treated with an implanted left ventricular assist device, a form of artificial heart that assumes some of the load from the patient's heart. Such devices are typically left in for a few months to a year or two.
That Hannah's piggybacked heart could be successfully removed after 10 years is "remarkable," said Dr. Kathy Magliato, director of women's cardiac services at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Assn.
The family, which lives in Mountain Ash near Cardiff, Wales, appeared at a London news conference Monday. Hannah burst into tears when a journalist asked her how the surgery had changed her life.
"Thanks to this operation [removal of the heart], I've now got a normal life just like all my friends," she said. She added that she cherished every moment and that she now plays sports and has a part-time job working with animals, which would have been impossible before she stopped taking the transplant drugs.
Hannah's mother, Liz, praised the family whose daughter provided the donor heart: "They lost a child, we've gained a child. How can I ever thank them?"
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thomas.maugh@latimes.com
