Yarmouth Teen Gets Heart Transplant After Making Medical History

BOSTON (CBS) - A teen from Yarmouth who made medical history earlier this year received the gift of life this Easter weekend.

Thirteen-year old Kyah DeSimone is recovering at Boston Children's Hospital after getting a long-awaited heart transplant Saturday.

Last November, her heart medication became ineffective and then her heart failed.

Doctors at Boston Children's Hospital did not have a matching donor heart at the time, so they worked around the clock to get FDA approval for a small pump that had only been used in Canada.

They surgically attached the pump to DeSimone's heart so that she could go home and resume her normal schedule while she waited for a donor heart.

She was the first youngster in the nation to have the procedure done with the pump and then return to school with it.

A fund has been set up to help with the family's medical costs.

You can visit her website or send checks to:

Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank

c/o Kyah's Heart Fund

514 Station Ave.

South Yarmouth, MA 02664