A two-year-old girl who was the first child in the UK to have a mobile heart fitted has finally been allowed home after receiving a living saving transplant. Grace Westwood - who was born with a heart muscle disease - has been kept alive with the miracle device since last May while her frantic parents searched for a donor.
But after she underwent the tricky 12-hour operation at the Newcastle Freeman Hospital this month, she has now been given the all-clear to the delight of her parents. The tiny tot was first admitted to hospital when she became ill in March 2020, and later became one of the longest people left waiting on the urgent transplant list.
And in May last year, she was fitted with a mobile “Berlin Heart” driving unit, meaning that she could go to the park for the first time. But in July this year, her stunned parents, Darren Westwood and Becci Jones, got the call say a new donor heart was available for their little girl.
