Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Girl makes complete recovery after having third of heart removed

A girl who had almost a third of her heart removed in a desperate attempt to save her life has made a "complete" recovery. Kirsty Collier was four months old and dying on the operating table when the decision was taken to use the radical surgery for the first time. Her parents were warned that she was unlikely to survive, having already suffered multiple heart attacks in her short life. But a decade later she has astounded doctors by making a virtually complete recovery with scans showing her heart is the correct shape and size for her age and its scars have disappeared. Kirsty, who plays rugby for her school, said: "I don't want to be different to anyone else just because I've had a heart operation. I like to do sport because it keeps me fit and healthy." She lives with her father Wayne, a computer software salesman, mother Becky , brother Connor, 13, and sister Caitlin, six, at their home in Gloucestershire. Kirsty was born with a rare heart condition which is frequently fatal within the first three months of a child's life. Her left coronary artery starved the heart muscle of oxygen and left her heart twice the size it should have been - Telegraph

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