15-month-old to receive artificial heart
Jun 20, 2013, 3:10 PM | Updated: 3:11 pm
After being diagnosed with a rare heart condition, 15-month-old Mackenzee Armes is set to undergo a surgery that will impant an artificial heart and hopefully give the young girl more time to live.
According to Fox 10, the Armes family was shocked when they brought their daughter to the emergency room for a fever, only to find that their child was dying of a rare heart condition. Armes was diagnosed with dilated cardio myapathy, a condition which prevents the heart from pumping blood normally. This disease affects only six in every one million children.
Armes is scheduled to receive an artificial heart at Phoenix Children’s Hospital Thursday.
Lisa Ames, Mackenzee’s mother, said:
“I want to go back to the hospital and spend every minute I can with my daughter because they say there’s some major risks during this surgery and I’m really scared,”
The six-hour surgery will be funded by Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
