Ellie Beale wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the new heart she received at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
The six-year-old lights up any room she enters, but back in 2011 when she was two, she needed a new heart and underwent a risky transplant procedure at GOSH.
Like another recent patient, whose life-saving surgery the Standard reports on today, it was a complex operation and at one stage the surgeon was forced to re-enter her chest to assist the heart after the operation was complete.
Ellie recovered well and is now back at school.
Her mum Deborah, 48, said: “She does everything you can think of now, she goes swimming, plays tennis, has dance lessons, she does drama. She has a lot of scars, but day-to-day she is the most cheerful little girl you could imagine. There are ups and downs but you wouldn’t know it from looking at her.”
Ellie still enjoys coming to see the staff at the hospital, which the Standard is supporting with its Christmas Give to GOSH appeal.
Her mum added: “Ellie wouldn’t be alive now if it wasn’t for the generosity of a very brave family and the expertise of the doctors and surgeons at GOSH. We are so grateful we still have our little girl. She embraces life with open arms and enjoys every minute she can.”
