Artificial Heart Never Skipped A Beat

After Failed Transplant, 14-Year-Old Girl Survived For Almost 4 Months With Artificial Heart

(CBS)  Fourteen-year-old D'Zhana Simmons has a newfound appreciation for machines - and in her case it’s due to the artificial heart that saved her life.

The brave young girl talked to CBS Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez and shared her story of hardship that she endured while living with an artificial heart.

Simmons admits she didn't feel whole without a real heart, but that it was well worth the awkward feeling because ultimately it saved her life.

"I felt like I was a fake person. Like I didn't really exist. It was everything was fake," Simmons said.

Her tough journey began in July, when Simmons had a heart transplant that didn't work.

Therefore in order to save her life, the doctors kept her alive with an artificial heart for almost four months until she could receive a new heart.

Physically, D'Zhana, who now appears healthy, felt the difference with an artificial heart.

D'Zhana timidly shared her thoughts on the experience of waiting for a transplant.

"It felt like people kept continuously like making noises inside of you because the machine made noises," she said.

At times, D'Zhana admitted that while waiting for a real heart transplant, she was scared it wouldn't work out and that she felt sick.

She finally got the heart transplant after 118 days, but those days felt like an eternity to her and her mother.

"Very long, hard and stressful," said her mother, Twolla Anderson, of the ordeal. "I would listen to the machine, and the machine is what's keeping her here, beating for her. Day-to-day, she didn't know what to expect or what to think."

Dr. Marco Ricci and his team helped to save D'Zhana's life with the remarkable device.

"Well, this was a very difficult situation. We actually did the first transplant on D'Zhana in the beginning of July and unfortunately we had a rare complication of a heart transplant operation, in which the new heart did not work. We were sort of left in a bind," Ricci said.

He said the heart developed a large clot in one of its ventricles. "We had no choice" but to take the heart out, Ricci said. "We decided to use a machine that's commercially available which was implanted in D'Zhana's chest and kept her alive for almost four months."

Ricci admitted that the first two months were "quite difficult" because she was very sick, however D'Zhana recovered and Ricci and his team were able to proceed with the second heart transplant operation - a true miracle.

[rudy6543]

What a wonderful story.

[wheear]

Praise God for your healing! I''m happy for you. Be blessed.

[pvperson]

"Praise God for your healing!"

what on earth did "God" have to do with anything or is God''s name, "Dr. Marco Ricci"?

[peacedreamer-2009]

Thank God medicine keeps advancing to help people like this. A generation ago, this girl would have died, hopeless against bad luck with the first heart. How wonderful that Dr. Ricci and his team are using their God-given intelligence and abilities to help others.

[tazzxx-2009]

God gave the doctors the knowledge to overcome death.
Thank you Lord God and thank you doctor Ricci and his team.
I am so, so happy for D''Zhana Simmons and her mother and family. It really made my day. :)

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family?
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family?
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family?
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How much did the doctors earn? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. My chipped tooth is starting to decay and that is not covered by my health under-insurance. Specialist visits are not covered. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.
Why are all you people praising God that she gets the health care and all of us under-insured Americans get none unless we go bankrupt?

[fuggywater]

How much did this cost?
Who paid for it? How can that not be part of the story?
My family is under-insured. Not one $80 visit to the pediatrician for my kids is covered.
I don''t have extra money to take my kids to the dentist. It costs $1,000 every time we go!
But this girl gets all the health care in the world. Heck, they are making up health care as they go along so that she can have more health care. Why her and not my family? There must have been a pretty deep pocket for those docs to wheelbarrow away money from.

[crimson29-2009]

It''s remarkable what these doctors were able to do!The device used was a Thoratec PVAD. It''s been FDA-approved for years.

For more information: http://www.thoratec.com/downloads/PVAD-IVAD-Fact-Sheet.pdf

[lycoslicia]

fuggywater stop feeling sorry for yourself and start working more or something so you can get a proper insurance for your family but dont spam your self pity pls.cant u be happy for someone else? im very happy for this girl, she''s only 14 and has to go through this. im glad she made it.

[rf35]

I too wonder where the money came from. Was it done as a freebie to get some high-profile visibility for the hospital/lead doctor? I doubt there are any insurance plans in America that would cover something like this. Is the family just obscenely wealthy? I bet Dr. Ricci now is, anyway. All you people invoking your deity, did it paid for the operations? Let%u2019s see, the surgeries themselves, whith all their related costs; the hospital stay for well over 118 days; the medications; the specialist fees...it just goes on and on. We%u2019re talking millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars here. Who paid the bill? My tax money? Who?