Maria Cheng, AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) — British doctors
designed a radical solution to save a girl with major heart
problems in 1995: they implanted a donor heart directly onto her
own failing heart. After 10 years with two blood pumping organs,
Hannah Clark's faulty one did what many experts had thought
impossible: it healed itself enough so that doctors could remove
the donated heart. But she also had a price to pay: the drugs
Clark took to prevent her body from rejecting the donated heart
led to malignant cancer that required chemotherapy. Details of
Clark's revolutionary transplant and follow-up care were
published online Tuesday in the medical journal Lancet. "This
shows that the heart can indeed repair itself if given the
opportunity," said Dr. Douglas Zipes, a past president of the
American College of Cardiology. Zipes was not linked to Clark's
treatment or to the Lancet paper. "The heart apparently has
major regenerative powers, and it is now key to find out how
they work." In 1994, when Clark wa