New heart miracle has given us our baby back

Donor ends family's anxious wait to save six-year-old with rare condition

- BY CHIARA POLLOCK

BATTLING Brie McCann's family yesterday told of their joy after the six-year-old had a lifesaving heart transplant.

Mum Jodie said she and husband Gary have their "baby back" after Brie got a "second chance at life".

The call came in early December, ending what they have described as their "worst year ever".

Brie, six, was born with Ebstein's anomaly, a rare condition that affects the flow of blood through a valve in the heart.

We previously told how time was "running out" for the schoolgirl, who was in desperate need of a transplant after her condition deteriorated and she was placed on the urgent list.

Jodie said that days before the transplant, Brie was using an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) a life-support machine acting as an artificial heart.