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Miracle surgery saves girl's heart by repairing with 'raincoat material'

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ANI London

Surgeons in England performed a miracle surgery, when they repaired a little girl's heart with material that would usually be used to make raincoats.

Olivia Fowler was born with her organs on the wrong side of her body and with only half a heart, so the doctors made her a new valve from waterproof Gore-Tex in order to repump her heart to help it work, the Daily Express reported.

The five-year-old's father said that she is doing fantastically well and no one would ever know that she has part of her heart made from materialused for raincoats, which really is amazing.

Olivia was transferred to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children as soon as she was born in October, 2009 and had her first operation when she was 10 days old to start rerouting all the veins in her heart.

 

Surgeons fashioned a connection between her heart and her lungs made of Gore-Tex in order to allow blood to flow between them and the then had to have further four operations to finish the replumbing of her heart as she grew.

She had more surgery at nine months old, then also when she was 11 months old, at two years and her final operation took place last July.

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First Published: Nov 02 2014 | 4:32 PM IST

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