Heart op girl tells of her recovery ordeal

A 12-year-old Black Country girl who underwent a heart transplant after collapsing in the school corridor spoke today for the first time of her traumatic past three months.

Halesowen schoolgirl Jasmine Page has had five operations since passing out outside her music classroom at Windsor High School in January, becoming the first child to receive a heart transplant at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Jasmine, of Hunnington Drive, today said she was feeling "much better" and couldn't wait to get back to school in September.

"It's been quite hard but I feel almost normal again now," she said.

"The only difference is I don't feel out of breath all the time."

Jasmine, who becomes a teenager next month, has had kawasaki disease — an illness which affects blood vessels — since the age of three.

While her family knew that she would eventually need a heart transplant, they had been told that it was a long time away.

When she collapsed, she was not on a transplant list as she was not thought to be in immediate danger.

Staff at the school saved her life by giving her emergency first aid until paramedics arrived.

She suffered a series of further heart attacks while on life support, needing surgery to keep her heart beating, before a heart was found 48 hours later. A further blow came when it emerged that she had developed a perforated bowel, needing another operation.

She had been in hospital for almost 11 weeks when she returned home last week.

Before she became ill, she had been a keen dancer, taking part in ballet, tap and street dancing classes, but now she has had to learn to walk again as her muscles have weakened due to being bedbound.

Her mother Saundra, 44, and father Andy, 47, hope to get her fully recovered and back to normal in time for the new school year.

Mrs Page said: "Seeing her sat at home on the couch is just brilliant.

"We're so proud of her — she's been so brave."