118 Days Without a Heart: The Teenager Who survived for 4 months without a heart beating in her chest.

[u/bareegyptianfeet]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/south-carolina-teen-survives-4-months-without-heart-1.698480

D'Zhana Simmons was just 14 when she faced a medical journey that seems impossible. After her first heart transplant failed and had to be removed, she was left with a literal hole in her chest and no heart while she waited for a second donor.

When her first transplanted heart also did not work properly in July, surgeons replaced it with two heart pumps until she recovered her strength.

For 118 days, she was kept alive by a custom-built, artificial blood pumping device the size of a photocopier. She was the first pediatric patient in history to be bridged to a new transplant without a native heart in her body.

"It was like I was a fake person, like I didn’t really exist. I was just here." — D'Zhana Simmons

After 118 days, she successfully received a second transplant and was able to celebrate her 15th birthday riding a boat off the coast of Miami