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A 13-day-old baby has become the youngest in the UK to be fitted with an artificial heart.
Tiarna Middleton was given a Berlin heart by doctors at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle while she waits for a life-saving heart transplant.
Tiarna had the 10-hour operation to fit the device yesterday.
It comes after her parents, Sharney and Gary, launched a desperate appeal to encourage people to join the organ donor register in a bid to help find a donor for their daughter.
Tiarna Middleton, 13 days old, has become the youngest person in the UK to be fitted with an artificial heart
Tiarna was born with a serious heart condition and remains desperately ill. Image shows her parents, Sharney Gray and Gary Middleton and her brother, Jamie
Tiarna was born with an extremely rare condition, which meant the heart valve in the artery carrying blood to her lungs was blocked.
She was initially placed on an ECMO machine – an artificial heart and lung machine - but surgeons decided to try and fit a Berlin heart in a last ditch attempt to save her.
Consultant Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon Massimo Griselli, carried out the operation.
A Berlin heart is a device which can be used in people whose hearts are not strong enough to pump enough blood around their bodies.
The air driven pump, which takes over the work of a patient's own heart, is used to allow time for a donor heart to be found.
The device, which consists of a plastic chamber which sits outside the body, can be used to take over the work of one or both sides of the heart.
Tiarna's parents are urging people to join the organ donor register in a bid to help their daughter and other people in a similar position to her
The child's mother said today: 'Anything can happen in the next 48 hours. She has nothing left to try so we hope this works.'
It has a blood filled side and an air filled side and the blood filled side of the pump is connected directly to the child's own heart and main artery by two tubes.
It can be used for several months but a patient cannot remain hooked up to the device indefinitely.Tiarna’s mother Sharney Gray, from Newcastle, said: ‘She’s the smallest person they’ve tried that on.
'Anything can happen in the next 48 hours. She has nothing left to try so we hope this works.
Tiarna was given the device during a 10 hour operation yesterday. It is hoped it will keep her alive long enough for a donor heart to be found so she can have a transplant
WHAT IS A BERLIN HEART?
A Berlin heart is a device which can be used in people whose hearts are not strong enough to pump enough blood around their bodies.
It is used to allow time for a donor heart to be found.It is an air driven pump which takes over the work of the person's own heart.
It can be used to take over the work of one or both sides of the heart.
The Berlin heart consists of a plastic chamber which sits outside the body.It has a blood filled side and an air filled side and the blood filled side of the pump is connected directly to the child's own heart and main artery by two tubes.
It can be used for as long as several months but a person cannot remain on it indefinitely.Source: Great Ormond Street
'If it wasn’t for that surgeon, she wouldn’t be here today.’
The young couple, who already have a son Jamie, two, were told their little girl would be born with the heart condition hypoplastic right heart syndrome, before the birth.
Tiarna was delivered by C-section at the Freeman Hospital on May 22 but doctors were unable to predict the extent of her health problems and soon discovered that her coronary arteries had failed to form properly.
The Berlin heart should help keep Tiarna alive for longer than an ECMO machine would have.
But a heart transplant remains the only long term solution for her condition and tiny Tiarna is still waiting for a donor.
Ms Gray, 22, added: ‘We’re in a really difficult position. Babies under two months can’t be organ donors in this country.
‘She could take the heart of a baby up to three months old but it all depends on weight and size. Time is just running out.’
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