Mum's plea to save baby girl in desperate need of a new heart

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The mum of a one-year-old girl who was fitted with a pacemaker at just four-days-old says she is in desperate need of a heart transplant. Little Minnie Stanley is currently in a hospital miles away from her home in Little Hulton hooked up to a mechanical heart that is keeping her live.

Minnie was born with a congenital complete heart block which meant she had to have an operation to fit a pace maker into her heart soon after she was born. Despite this, she managed to go home and was ‘coping well’ as a ‘normal child with a pacemaker’.

However, her mother, Natasha Stanley, says at the beginning of this year she started to notice some 'issues' with Minnie's appetite and breathing until one morning she woke up and found that Minnie’s whole body had swollen. Confused and thinking it was an ‘allergic reaction’, Natasha took Minnie to hospital where she was told that her daughter was having a heart failure and had to have another surgery to fit a larger pacemaker.

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Unfortunately the surgery was unsuccessful and Minnie was placed on the heart transplant list, meaning it could take up to 12 months to find a viable donor. Minnie is currently at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London hooked up to a Berlin heart that is helping her live like a normal baby, and regain her strength after multiple operations at such a tender age.

Natasha says that too comes with ‘risks’ however and they are looking for an organ donor to come forward to so they can bring Minnie Home. Speaking to the MEN about the family’s ordeal, Natasha, 25, said: “It’s been hard, it’s been very difficult, but I’ve had to stay strong for