By Nick Gale, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) An Aurora boy is the the world’s youngest recipient of a smaller version of a temporary artificial heart.
While he is waiting for a permanent transplant, 11-year-old Jaheim Whigham, is talking about his 50cc artificial heart which he says makes him feel like a robot.
The smaller version was designed to fit women, men of smaller stature and adolescents. Jaheim was born with a heart defect and underwent his first transplant in 2012 but his body began rejecting it last year.
With Jaheim’s health worsening, doctors implanted the Total Artificial Heart last month. It’s a transplant bridge seldom used in children.
Jaheim is the youngest and smallest recipient ever, and one of only 40 worldwide.
According to the Gift of Hope, in the U.S. alone more than 4,200 people are awaiting heart transplants.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
