Shropshire heart swop teenager back in hospital

A Shropshire heart transplant teenager is back in hospital after the donor organ was "rejected".

But the family of Zoe Croft, of Myddle, near Wem, today said because she is young, the complications could be managed with medication and hospital treatment, and is not facing the prospect of a second transplant.

But it does mean the 16-year-old GCSE student's dream of attending her school prom tonight has been dashed.

Zoe, who attends Corbet School in Baschurch, is back at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham meaning she will be unable to join her friends when they celebrate the end of their school days in style.

But her father Steven said: "She is doing okay and it's just a part of the treatment that an organ can be rejected, so she's back at hospital in Birmingham.

"Everybody who has a transplant gets organ rejection of some kind because the body thinks its a foreign object. But her immune system is so good, because she's young and healthy, that her body isn't letting the heart fail.

"She's having treatment to help her body accept the heart and we hope she'll be out again soon. We're hoping to have a get-together for all her family and friends once she's out again.

"She's devastated about missing the prom and fed up of being in hospital but she's hopefully going to be back home in the coming days."

Zoe was admitted to hospital and underwent surgery at the end of last month.

She first came down with what doctors thought was a virus or possibly asthma in April.

But just days later she was fighting for her life in hospital after suffering heart failure, sparking a nationwide race to find a suitable donor organ in time.

Zoe's illness caused her heart to swell to three times its normal size and her parents said she was lucky to find a suitable donor.

School friends from Corbet School, including Delli Price and Hannah Davies, held a cake sale to raise money in Zoe's honour while she was in hospital for the transplant.

They raised cash for charities picked by Zoe and to buy her a gift to aid her recovery and lift her spirits.

By Tom Johannsen