A NORTH-EAST baby has become the youngest in the world to survive thanks to an artificial heart.

Louisa Jane McGregor-Smith, from Marton Grove, Middlesbrough, was only three months old and hours away from death due to heart failure when she was put on a revolutionary life support machine.

The so-called Berlin Heart pumped away for five critical weeks and kept her alive until a suitable heart donor could be found. Louisa was transferred from The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, to the specialist heart unit at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, when doctors realised she was desperately ill.

She was put on a conventional life support system until surgeons fitted the Berlin Heart, an artificial pump developed in Germany that is used to keep patients alive.

It was the first time a patient so young had been fitted with the life-saving device, which sits outside the body, connected to the patient by four tubes.

Two days before Christmas, a donor heart was found in Belfast, and surgeon Asif Hussan flew out in a private jet to collect it.

Louisa, who was suffering from acute cardiomyopathy, was given her new heart in a 15-hour operation. Now she is back home with parents Samantha, 33, Kerry, 36, and brother Billy, seven. Louisa's mother said: "My message to the surgeons is thank you for saving Louisa's life. You have given us our baby girl back."

It is the second time the Freeman's use of the Berlin Heart machine has been in the news in recent days.

Yesterday, The Northern Echo reported how a Berlin Heart was used to keep three-year-old Abigail Hall alive until she could have a heart transplant.

Abigail, from Glasgow, was given a new heart on December 10 at the Freeman and is making a full recovery.