Heart device is a plug-in life-saver
A YOUNG mother with a faulty heart has become the first woman in Scotland to be fitted with a pioneering device to help keep her alive.
Kirstin Taylor, 32, was told the future was bleak after she suffered a massive heart attack.
Her only hope of survival lay with the Ventricular Assist Device, an unwieldy machine which is fitted to the heart to keep it beating.
The device runs on electricity, so needs a nightly charge to keep it going. And when she goes out of the house she has to carry two huge batteries with her.
A cable runs from her abdomen to the device in her heart. It is powered by two batteries and a control panel, which weigh three kilos and must go everywhere with her.
Ms Taylor, from Westhill outside Aberdeen, said: "Now I plug myself into the wall every night – just like I do with my mobile phone.
"It's very strange, and I'm still getting used to it."
She added: "For the first time in my life I've got pink cheeks. I feel brilliant, and it's all down to the machine."
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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