UK NEWS

SWEET 16, THE GIRL WHO DIED 8 TIMES AS A BABY

Kirsty Sanderson: 'Lucky'

Wednesday June 25,2008

By Tom Morgan

A GIRL who made history when she was fitted with the world’s smallest pacemaker has defied the odds and is now looking forward to her 16th birthday.

Kirsty Sanderson was given just weeks to live by doctors after being born with defective arteries and a hole in her heart.

She ‘died’ eight times on the operating table during a five-hour procedure to try to repair her heart.

But after life-saving surgery to install a pacemaker at 14 weeks, Kirsty was fitted with the tiny 14 gram replacement – no bigger than a thumbnail – at the age of two.

The revolutionary technology has allowed Kirsty, now 15, to lead a normal healthy life without the need for a heart transplant.

Kirsty, who has just finished her GCSEs, said: “There’s barely a day that goes by when I don’t think how lucky I am to be alive.

There’s barely a day that goes by when I don’t think how lucky I am to be alive

Kirsty Sanderson

“My nan tells me there were babies like me dying all around them a hospital. Without the pacemaker, I wouldn’t be here.

“I was in and out of hospital a lot while I was growing up but I wasn’t angry about it. I just accepted it.

“And my life is normal. I can’t play much sport but other than that I can do everything else.

“If I ever feel breathless, I do get a bit scared but I’m never in pain. I don’t like the feel of the blood pumping through the wires but that’s a small price to pay.”

Kirsty’s father Steve Sanderson, 40, told how the tiny implant altered his daughter’s heart rate, increasing it as she exerted herself then lowering it when she rested.

Trucker Steve, from Rushden, Northants, said: “It was more like a turbo charge than a pacemaker.

“She was unstoppable. It gave her more get up and go than any other child I knew.”

The tiny pacemaker lasted for six years before Kirsty needed a replacement – this time a full-sized model. Kirsty is due to have her fourth pacemaker fitted this August, just a few weeks after her 16th birthday and ready for when she starts a course in child care in September.

She will need to have a new pacemaker fitted every eight to 10 years for the rest of her life.

Kirsty, who has three brothers and two sisters aged seven to 18, had her first open heart surgery at Harefield Hospital, in Middlesex, in 1992 when she was nine weeks old.

But the left ventricle in her heart was damaged during the delicate eight-hour procedure and Kirsty’s heart stopped eight times during the subsequent operation.

Remarkably, Kirsty fought back and at 14 weeks doctors fitted her first pacemaker, the size of a 50p piece, in her tummy.

She returned to Harefield two years later to have the world’s smallest pacemaker fitted.

Her mother, Becky Neal, 33, said: “She’s a lovely girl and we’re very proud of her. She’s our light and we hope her story offers hope to other families facing similar problems.”

Grandmother Marion Woods, 63, of Rushden, said: “Kirsty really shouldn’t have been alive. Without the technology, she would’ve been taken from us.”