Transplant for heart refusal girl (UK)

"A terminally ill girl who won the right to refuse a heart transplant is thought to have undergone the operation. Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has confirmed Hannah Jones, 14, from Marden, near Hereford, is a patient. In a statement, the hospital said she had been admitted but refused to comment further on her case. Hannah, whose heart has been weakened by medication for leukaemia, is thought to have been transferred to the hospital on Tuesday night" - BBC

Full recovery for two hearts girl (UK)

"A 16-year-old girl from Wales who made history when, as a baby, she had a donor heart grafted onto her own has made a full recovery. Doctors say Hannah Clark's own heart is now in perfect working order three-and-a-half years after her 'piggy-back' donor heart was removed. Sir Magdi Yacoub, the pioneering surgeon who performed Hannah's original transplant when she was two, said he was 'surprised and delighted'. The Lancet journal tells her story" - BBC

Sodbury heart transplant patient 'was on brink of death' (UK)

"A heart transplant patient who said his final goodbyes to family and friends at Christmas has returned from the brink of death and dedicated his life to helping other people. Matthew Rumney, who grew up in the Chipping Sodbury area, was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy but until the beginning of 2008 had managed to cope with mild symptoms. Last year, however, his heart began to fail and Matthew suffered agonising angina and a stroke. Doctors gave him less than a year to live. Matthew, 36, said: "I thought 'This is it'. I was determined to make Christmas because I wanted to spend it with my family and girlfriend Jane Harris. "But by New Year I was waiting to die. I said goodbye to family and friends. "Every night I would kiss Jane like it was the last time." For Matthew's family, the trauma was history repeating itself as his younger brother Duncan died of the same congenital heart disease aged just 12" - Gazette

Transplant family's 'heart trick' (Scotland)

A Scottish family could become the first in the UK to undergo three heart transplants. Stephen Moffat, 12, from Cleland, Lanarkshire, and Rachael, 7, were the first siblings to have transplants for a hereditary heart problem. Now their father, Andrew, 45, requires the operation for the same condition. He told the BBC Scotland news website: "It is very rare. Rather than a hat trick - we would be going for a 'heart trick'."

Baby heart transplant raises questions on UK rules

Heart transplant baby Sarah Cox would not be alive today if UK rules were rolled out throughout Europe - Telegraph

Hamad Medical Corporation needs donor for first heart transplant

"Hamad Medical Corporation is waiting for a donor heart to conduct Qatar's first heart transplant. 'We are ready,' consultant cardiac and transplant surgeon Dr Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi told Gulf Times. But, people are not ready to donate the hearts of their dying relatives, he explained. This is due to a lack of awareness about the benefits of donating organs from a brain dead person on life support." - Gulf Times

Medicare's refusal to pay could end Sutter, California, heart transplants

"In a move that could kill the region's only heart transplant program, federal Medicare officials have notified Sutter Memorial Hospital (Sacramento, CA) that it will not pay for heart transplants there after January 15. Sutter does too few transplants and hasn't made progress toward boosting its numbers despite years of extra monitoring and corrective plans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the hospital. Sutter has asked a federal judge to force Medicare to keep paying while it appeals the decision, but no court date has been set" - Sacramento Bee

US teenager lives 118 days without heart

An American teenager survived for nearly four months without a heart, kept alive by a custom-built artificial blood-pumping device, until she was able to have a heart transplant, doctors in Miami said on Wednesday. The doctors said they knew of another case in which an adult had been kept alive in Germany for nine months without a heart but said they believed this was the first time a child had survived in this manner for so long. The patient, D'Zhana Simmons of South Carolina, said the experience of living for so long with a machine pumping her blood was "scary". - People's Daily Online

Adrian Kantrowitz; performed first U.S. heart transplant, dies

"Adrian Kantrowitz, 90, a doctor who performed the first human heart transplant in the United States and developed numerous medical devices that helped save thousands of heart patients, died of complications from congestive heart failure November 14 at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Dr. Kantrowitz transplanted the heart of a brain-dead baby to another infant December 6, 1967, days after Christiaan Barnard had pioneered the operation in South Africa. The American baby died after six hours" - Washington Post

Gender influences transplants

"New research shows that heart transplant patients have better odds of survival and a lower risk of rejection if they get organs from donors of the same sex. Size might be part of the explanation. Men's hearts are bigger than women's and have greater pumping capacity, and men who get men's hearts fare better. But differences in hormones or immune systems between the sexes might also play a role, researchers say. The study was paid for by the federal government and led by Dr. Eric Weiss, a cardiac surgery researcher at the Johns Hopkins University. He presented his findings yesterday at an American Heart Association conference" - Baltimore Sun

Girl wins right to refuse heart

"A terminally ill girl has won the right to refuse treatment after a hospital ended its bid to force her to have a heart transplant. Herefordshire Primary Care Trust, UK, dropped a High Court case after a child protection officer said Hannah Jones was adamant she did not want surgery. Hannah, 13, of Marden, near Hereford, said she wanted to die with dignity. Her father Andrew said he and his wife supported her decision but they had been upset by the PCT's actions. He said Hereford County Hospital's child protection team had contacted them in February threatening to remove Hannah from their care if they did not bring her to hospital for the operation." - BBC

Observing the 40th anniversary of the first human heart transplantation in the United States

"Four decades ago, years of research by Dr Norman Shumway and his colleagues culminated in the first successful human heart transplantation in the United States. In the years since that momentous surgery, Dr. Shumway's team conducted clinical and basic research that have made heart and lung transplantations relatively common procedures, providing decades of life to patients worldwide"

Man with third heart taking aim at PGA Tour

"Just five months removed from his second heart transplant, Erik Compton is a heartbeat away from reaching his lifelong goal: Joining the PGA Tour. Compton and his third heart will compete at Crandon Park Golf Course in the first stage of qualifying for golf's most prestigious tour"

Stollery celebrates 100th pediatric heart transplant

From The Edmonton Journal: "The Stollery Children's Hospital pediatric cardiac team has announced a milestone - its 100th heart transplant. The recipient was a baby girl named Dejanelle Huntley. 'The number of pediatric heart transplants performed by our team is growing exponentially,' said Dr. Ivan Rebeyka, head of pediatric cardiac surgery. So far this year, the team has performed 11 heart transplants on children, compared with six in all of 2007. About one in 100 babies is born with a heart defect in Alberta"