A seven-year-old boy survived for
525 days with an artificial heart in a Turin hospital before
having a transplant recently, hospital sources said Wednesday.
The year and a half on the Berlin Heart machine was the longest
ever spell for a patient at the Regina Margherita Hospital.
The boy is well and has already been discharged.
Born in Morocco, the boy started to show signs of cardiac
insufficiency in summer 2019.
He flew with his mother to join his father in Liguria and after
a brief spell in another hospital was moved to the Regina
Margherita in Turin.
His heart stopped shortly after he went into the cardiac unit
there, directed by Dr Michele Grassitelli.
Shortly afterwards he was given a Berlin Heart and kept growing
and learning Italian under the careful gaze of his parents who
in the meantime had another child.
Then, after the 525 days, came the heart transplant carried out
by by a team led by Dr Carlo Pace Napoleone..
He subsequently made a fast and successful recovery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA