Baby tops heart transplant list

Zoe Chambers has a narrow valve in her heart

An 18-month-old girl who has had six cardiac arrests since she was born has been put at the top of the European heart transplant list.

Zoe Chambers, from Hull, is being kept alive by an artificial heart at the Newcastle Freeman Hospital.

Doctors have said Zoe, who was born with a heart valve which was too narrow, has only weeks to live unless she gets a transplant.

A heart became available last week but it was decided it was too large.

Paediatric intensive care consultant at Newcastle Freeman hospital, Yam Thiru, said they were "becoming more and more desperate for an organ to become available for her".

'Best chance'

Two days after she was born a scan showed that one of Zoe's heart valves was struggling to allow blood to pass through.

Her mother Julie said: "She is desperate. She keeps getting infection after infection.

"She needs a transplant as soon as possible to give her the best chance."

If a suitable heart is found in any European country, it will be transported to the hospital by private aircraft.

Julie Chambers added: "We need a small heart for Zoe and the right tissue match as well."

She said the family were bearing up, but it was getting "harder and harder".

'Vital importance'

Ms Thiru, said: "This device that we've been using has been used on adults for a number of years - in children, it hasn't been used as long as that - perhaps up to a year or so."

She added: "The difficulty for Zoe has always been a shortage of paediatric donors - particularly in her size and weight category, which is of vital importance, in terms of transplantation.

"And really the aim for the press coverage that we've had, today in particular, is to heighten public awareness of the desperate need for paediatric organs.

"It's not about wishing misfortune on others, but hoping that where misfortune has occurred, that other children could benefit from that and that some good could come of it."