The complicated procedure was carried out by surgeons advised by Sir Magdi Yacoub, the renowned heart specialist, who came out of retirement at the request of Hannah's parents, Paul and Elizabeth. Sir Magdi performed Hannah's original transplant operation in 1996, when she was two.
She was suffering from cardiomyopathy, which made her heart double its normal size and therefore likely to give out within a year. A "piggy-back", or heterotopic heart transplant, saved her life.
The operation involved inserting the new heart into the right side of the chest and attaching it to Hannah's heart, which was left in position. The donor heart worked perfectly until last November when a routine visit to a cardiologist showed her body was rejecting it.
One major benefit of the operation is that she no longer needs to take the strong anti-rejection drugs prescribed when she had the donated heart.
