Living for nearly 4 months without heart

D'Zhana Simmons, 14 years old in Miami state (USA), lived 118 days without a heart. Instead, she was fitted with an artificial blood pumping device.

Simmons at the press conference at the University of Miami. (Photo: Reuters)

Simmons suffers from a heart disorder that makes her heart very weak and is unable to pump blood to other organs. Before that, she had a heart transplant surgery at Holtz Hospital, Miami but the heart was quickly eliminated by her body.

After that, the doctors decided to implant her body with two devices that pumped artificial blood to provide enough blood for the internal organs to function. After that, the doctors implanted an artificial heart for Simmons - Dailymail reported on November 20.

' I feel like I'm an old person, like I don't really live. I don't know when the machine will be malfunctioning, 'said Simmons at a news conference at Miami University.

' In fact, she lived 118 days without a heart. With 2 devices to pump artificial blood, Simmons can move but still have to be treated in hospital. This is the case where the youngest patient is transplanted without a heart, 'said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of the hospital's Pediatrics department. The doctor also added that 12-13 years later Simmons will need to replace a new heart.

The 14-year-old girl also suffered from kidney failure and received a kidney transplant right after the implanted heart.