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The heart that grew back: 'Miracle' of girl whose heart healed itself after athird was removed in emergencyoperation
ByChris Brookewww.dailymail.co.uk Last updated at 12:37 AM on 31st December 2008
'Miracle': Kirsty Collier's heart grew back after a third was removed when she was a baby
 Aged four months, Kirsty Collier lay dying on the operating table with a serious heartdefect.Her surgeon had tried his best to correct the problem but thought the organ was sobadly damaged that there was no hope.
 
 As a last-ditch attempt to save Kirsty's life, he decided to cut away a third of her heart,enlarged because of her condition, in case that restarted it. And against all the odds, it once again began to beat. For Professor Stephen Westaby,that, in itself, was a miracle. But ten years on, Kirsty's heart has proved even more of asurprise.For it has healed itself in a way experts never thought possible, and is now the normalsize and shape for a girl of her age – without a single telltale scar from the originalsurgery.Kirsty was born with a rare heart condition, which is frequently fatal within the firstthree months of life. The defect meant that her left coronary artery, which carries bloodto the heart muscle, was connected to the pulmonary artery instead of the aorta. As a result, the organ was starved of oxygen and became enlarged. Kirsty hadnumerous heart attacks as a baby and her prospects seemed bleak. As her condition became critical, Professor Westaby was called upon to carry outcorrective surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.Fight for life: When she was 4 months old, Kirsty was having numerous mild heartattacks because her heart was starved of oxygenBut Kirsty was linked up to a heart lung bypass machine for the surgery – and when thesurgical team attempted to get the heart to take over once again, they found it was sobadly damaged that it was unable to pump blood again.'We felt there was no hope at all,' Professor Westaby told Sky News.
 
 A message was even sent to Kirsty's parents to warn them 'it was not going well'.'She was essentially dead and was only resurrected by what I regarded at the time as acompletely bizarre operation,' added Professor Westaby.However, the surgeon had a hunch that reducing the size of Kirsty's heart would easethe pressure on the muscle, allowing it to contract properly.
 Almost too late: Kirsty was finally sent to a specialist heart unit after being sent back and forth to her GPfor the first four months of her life
 And using scissors, he removed a large section of the muscle wall, stitched it back together, and hoped for the best.'I have to confess I never thought it would work. It was an awful lot smaller.' But thebaby's heart began beating again.Today, Kirsty, of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is a sporty tenyear- old who plays rugbyat school. 'Her recovery is miraculous,' said Professor Westaby.
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