Hannah Jones, a critically ill teenager who stopped doctors from forcing her to have a transplant but then changed her mind, was recuperating Tuesday night after she was finally given a new heart.
Hannah, 14, had the heart transplant at London's Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital after being airlifted by helicopter from her home near Hereford.
"She's a brave kid and everyone is praying she makes a full recovery," a family friend said. "But it's a major operation and it will be a few days before she is out of the woods."
Hannah made history last November by fending off a legal bid by doctors in Hereford to force her to have a transplant.
Plagued by acute heart problems since developing leukemia at the age of four, she declared she was "sick" of hospitals and did not want to go through the trauma of more surgery.
But last week it emerged that Hannah had changed her mind. The teenager said she made the "difficult" decision after she suffered partial kidney failure five days after her birthday on July 12.
At the time, she was taken to Hereford hospital but could not receive dialysis because her heart was too weak to cope. It meant she had no other option but to go back on the transplant list or risk total kidney failure — and certain death.
"The right side of my heart isn't beating at all,” she said from the hospital. "And after lots of tests I realized there were more benefits to having a new heart to staying like I was. I know I decided I definitely didn't want this but everyone is entitled to change their mind."
Hannah was put at the top of the transplant surgery list, and within days she was transferred to the children’s hospital in London for the surgery.
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