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Ed Yeates ReportingPeople didn't know what to think when a limousine pulled up in front of LDS Hospital this afternoon. While a famous actor didn't get out, a 10-year old girl did and for a special reason.
It’s something you don't see everyday, but then 10-year-old Mikayla George is not your everyday patient either. Discharged from Primary Children's Hospital where she had been recuperating, she wanted to come back here to give a "classy" thanks.
Upstairs in the cardiac unit she gave a special thanks to Dr. James Long and colleagues. Next she went down the hall, walking, something people thought she would never do again.
Two months ago, Mikayla was dying from cardio-myopathy.
James Long, M.D., LDS Hospital: "Within a matter of a few weeks everything started unwinding. And Mikayla's heart was really was failing to a point where even massive support medications and other technologies weren't going to hold."
Would an artificial heart assist pump called LVAD work? Mikayla's body was too small for the adult LVAD so surgeons at LDS Hospital implanted two of what is called a BiVAD outside her body, one on each side.
At that moment she became one of the youngest patients in the country surviving on BiVADs. On May 30th, Mikayla got a real heart transplant. The BiVads had served her well and so had all the folks at LDS Hospital.
Traci Wardle, Mikayla's Mother: "She's doing great and we are going home and we're having a party for her and I'm going four-wheeling. She's going four wheeling. Yes."
Though Mikayla almost lost one leg and had a stroke while going through all this, you'd never know it now.
A trust fund has been set up to assist Mikayla’s family with the medical bills. Those interested can contact Zions Bank and inquire about the Mikayla Ashley George trust fund.
