Hannah Clark was only two years old when she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a condition which made her heart twice the size it should have been and placed it under such strain that it would probably have given out within a year. A team led by sir Magdi Yacoub in the UK operated on Hannah and put a “piggy – back” donor heart next to her own, which remained in place, while the new organ took over the job of pumping most of her blood. All had routine checkup revealed that Hannah had begun to reject the new heart.

Hannah’s parents asked surgeons at Great Ormond street Hospital in London to remove the donor heart and reconnect the dormant one, but the surgeon were reluctant because it had never been done before. The parents approached Sir Magdi who agrred to come out of reteirment to advise the surgical team. The operation was performed on 20 February 2006, and proved to be a remarkable success. It was expected to take at least eight hours, but Hannah was out within four hours. They doctors were initially not sure long Hannah would be in intensive care, week or months, because it was the first time such an operation had been done. But, Hannah recorved so well she was able to go home within five days.

The successful procedure means that Hannah no longer has to take the strong anti – rejection drugs she had been on while she has battled lymph cancer for the past few years, and is in remission after successful chemotherapy in January this year.

Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said that surgeons had suspected for some time that failing hearts might be able to recover if given respite by a “ piggy – back heart”. He said, “ Today the approached would be to implant a mechanical heart, called Ventricular assist device, to take over the work of the inflamed heart in the hope that the heart will recover, and the device can be taken out after a few not sufficiently reliable, which is why Hannah recievd a donor heart alongside her own”.