AUSTIN, Texas — An absolutely adorable 6-month-old Austinite got to go home Monday after receiving a donor heart transplant at Dell Children’s.
Zaria went to Dell Children's emergency department on Jan. 8, presenting symptoms and signs of heart failure, and was quickly admitted to the pediatric cardiac care unit, according to the hospital. Zaria's last name was not released.
Zaria's condition worsened at the hospital, and doctors later determined her best chance for survival would be a heart transplant.
The hospital said the cause of Zaria's heart failure remains uncertain. Doctors gave Zaria a Berlin Heart Ventricular Assist Device – which would function in place of her heart when it became too weak to pump sufficient amounts of blood to the lungs or the rest of her body – on Jan. 11 while she awaited a heart donor.
On March 25, Zaria received her heart transplant.
PHOTOS: Dell Children’s, UT Health Austin celebrate 6-month-old’s heart transplant
Baby Zaria got to go home with her family on April 19.
Zaria's procedure is the fourth heart transplant to have been done at Dell Children's, according to the hospital. The Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at Dell Children’s Medical Center began the heart transplant program in July 2020.
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