Jordan GreatheadChristmas “came early” for the parents of a toddler with heart failure after a successful operation to treat his condition.
Penelope Greathead, from Ravensker, North Yorkshire, is suffering from debilitating cardiomyopathy and was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital earlier this week.
The 14-month-old was previously on life support at Leeds Children’s Hospital before a bed was found for her in London.
Her parents said the procedure to fit Penelope with a mechanical pump “went well”.
The device, known as the Berlin Heart, will help Penelope’s heart actually work and pump blood around her body.
Although she was diagnosed with the condition when she was just a few weeks old, Penelope was on medication until she suffered a sudden heart attack during a routine hospital stay earlier this month.
Writing on a Facebook page where they provide updates on Penelope’s condition, her family wrote: “Penelope had a heart operation in Berlin yesterday and everything went well.”
‘Great relief’
Her parents, Jordan Greathead and Holly Suff, said that while it was “early days” in their daughter’s recovery, she no longer needed the use of a life support machine.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Greathead said it was a “huge relief” as Penelope had been on life support for three weeks.
He said: “The last three weeks have just been a roller coaster. That’s the only way I can describe it.”
The couple has since received a flood of donations and messages of support. Posting about her daughter’s plight on social media.
“Everything was so unexpected, from what was supposed to be a routine medical appointment going wrong, we tried to put the post on Facebook to see what was going on,” Mr Greathead said. said Mr. Greathead.
“We’ve had so many messages from people all over the world and we’re so touched.”
Family handoutPenelope will now live with her parents in Great Ormond Street until she can receive a heart transplant, although they have been told it could take up to two years due to a shortage of organ donations.
The family said raising awareness of the importance and impact of organ donation is now “key to her future”.
Mr Greathead said he and Ms Suff are likely to spend Christmas Day with coffee by Penelope’s bedside.
He added: “We’re happy because we could have been in a very different position after what happened.
“But he’s in the best place in Europe that he could possibly be right now.”
Penelope’s parents raised around £130,000. In just a few days earlier this monthafter being told her daughter needed the procedure and there was a lack of NHS beds able to support the treatment.
However, the couple was then told that Great Ormond Street can accommodate Penelope.That is, cash was no longer needed.
As a result, her parents, who thanked the kind strangers “from the bottom of our hearts”, have said they will donate the money to other families facing a similar situation.
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