Heart transplant success for Hanna

A SEVEN-year-old girl from Edinburgh is recovering well after undergoing a groundbreaking heart transplant operation.

Hanna Adnan stunned doctors with her bravery and resilience after a challenging eight-hour operation to receive a new heart.

The youngster is the first person in the world to have lived with an artificial heart during the wait on three separate occasions.

Her family has faced an anxious wait for a donor heart but last month one became available.

Hanna and her father Adnan Zubir travelled to Newcastle for the operation four weeks ago and will soon be able to return to their home in the Capital after the success.

Despite everything she has been through, he said his daughter remained brave and happy throughout.

He said: "She's always a very smiley girl, never crying, does not matter what pain she's in.

"She always when you come to see her has a smiling face, she loves life, she loves people, she loves going out, she loves the park, she loves her school.

"She's full of life."

Despite the operation only being weeks ago, she has been playing in the playground of the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and has amazed doctors with the speed of her recovery.

Hanna needed a special artifical heart, called a Berlin heart, for several years to stay alive.

She has had to rely on one on three separate occasions, more than anyone else in the world.

Hanna is also the first child to get a new drug to stop her body rejecting the new heart.

Dr Richard Kirk, said: "That's unique in the world. No one else has needed to go back on the Berlin heart three times. In many senses it wouldn't be possible because it's such a technically difficult task to try and put the device in and take it out again.

"To put it back and out and do it three times is astonishing to be able to do it and for her to survive, but it's fantastic that she's come through it all and is so well."