(Toronto) Multiple heart surgeries and near-death experiences have earned 12-year-old Mariam Tannous the nickname “miraculous,” her mother says.
Posted at 2:28 p.m.
And for good reason: About a year ago, this now healthy pre-teen became the youngest person in Canada, and one of the youngest in the world, to receive a device known as an “artificial heart.” total “.
His doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto detailed their latest measure to save his life on Monday, after a previous transplant failed. This is all the more remarkable given that such devices are only designed for adults – the machine barely fits into young Mariam’s rib cage. After the implantation, her surgeon, Dr. Osami Honjo, even had to leave the cavity open for five days.
Mariam’s mother, Linda Antouan Adwar, remembers many days of tears praying for her daughter’s recovery, and the joy she felt when she learned she would pull through.
Mariam was born with two forms of congenital heart disease: Ebstein’s anomaly caused a leaky heart valve, and cardiomyopathy caused a malformation of the right ventricle. She underwent open-heart surgery aged three and a heart transplant aged seven, but her condition deteriorated aged 11 – she suffered cardiac arrest in June 2021.
Her older brother performed resuscitation, but doctors had to admit that her heart was breaking down: she would need a second transplant, but also time to regain her strength, for her immune response to calm down-and to find a new heart.
58 adult patients in Canada
Her cardiologist, Dr. Aamir Jeewa, explains that the medical team then considered the total artificial heart, a device that can essentially replace an entire human heart for a limited period of time. The Total Artificial Heart is different from other devices, which are designed to connect to an existing heart to facilitate its function. It has only been used on 58 patients in Canada so far.
The procedure involves removing the heart’s two main pumping chambers and replacing them with surgically attached mechanical pumps, says Dr. Jeewa, cardiac function program manager at Toronto Children’s Hospital. Tubes run from the mechanical pumps out of the chest and into a large wheeled console that runs continuously outside the body.
After the operation, Mariam remained sedated and mechanically ventilated for 16 days. During this time, blood and fluid accumulated around the device, requiring further intervention.
And then a heart for Mariam became available two months later, which brought with it a new challenge: removing the device and connecting what amounted to her third heart implant.
Mariam will have to take immunosuppressive drugs every day for the rest of her life, Dr Honjo points out – although children who receive transplants tend to fare much better than adults.
Yet transplants aren’t a cure – they can only prolong life, cardiologist Jeewa says, and it’s highly likely that Mariam’s transplanted heart will eventually stop.
What’s important in the meantime is making sure Mariam can live the best life possible, he says. By taking medication and seeing a cardiologist regularly, she should be able to do what most children do.
Today, her mother, Antouan Adwar, says that Mariam is truly a child like any other: she swims four times a week and loves playing soccer and basketball with her older brother Jack. And she pursued a passion for art that began in hospital, where she drew pictures of her family – surrounded by a huge heart.