UK girl, 18, has had three hearts

Leanne Nicholson (File Photo)
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An 18-year-old British girl has had no fewer than three hearts -- the one she was born with and the other two transplanted hearts, media reported Monday.

Leanne Nicholson, a medical miracle, and lucky to be alive, is recovering at her home in Choppington, in Northumberland, from her second heart transplant three months ago.

Until the age of 12, Leanne was a normal and healthy child. But in April 2002 a virus -- unnamed and unknown -- swept through her body, attacking the muscle tissue of her heart.

She was diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy, literally "heart muscle disease."

Her heart was so damaged by the virus that the doctors said it was as though she'd suffered three major heart attacks.

The first transplanted heart came from a young woman who had died of a head injury. And the transplant was, to everyone's huge relief, a success in 2002.

But after just 14 months, Leanne went into chronic rejection. Her body began to recognize the heart as an alien tissue and started to attack it so powerfully that even the strongest immuno-suppressive drugs did not work.

Surgeons attempted to fit Leanne with a pacemaker to regulate her heartbeat and help it keep a regular rhythm. But the operation was not a success because the heart was so weak, so in 2003 Leanne was once again rushed to intensive care with heart failure.

"To receive a second heart transplant is a million-to-one chance as there is such a shortage of donor organs," says Leanne.

In January this year, shortly after she spent her 18th birthday, Leanne again went into complete heart failure.

Her parents were told that a transplant was the only option. Without it she had at best just 30 days to live.

Doctors told them to say goodbye to Leanne, who by then was on life support, unconscious and with pipes, drains and wires all over her.

She was lucky enough that after three days of fighting for life, a heart was found, from a 35-year-old man from London who had died in a car accident.

Leanne is now making a steady recovery and said she had not felt so well in years.

The average survival rate for heart transplant patients is ten years, with many living for 20 years or more, and so her future is looking brighter than it has for a very long time.