Collier toddler uses ‘Berlin Heart’ device for 519 days while waiting for transplant

It was unclear if Nydia Salinas’ 2-year-old daughter Alicia —in need of a new heart— would live past infancy.

“Well she was going to die if they had not done the transplant,” Nydia said.

Alicia was able to help her live long enough to get a transplant with the help of a device.

Dr. Frank Scholl, the chief of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Heart Institute in Hollywood, Fla., where Alicia spent 519 days.

“She was on an assist device for over 500 days, which is the longest any child has been on the device in North America,” Scholl said.

The Berlin Heart was developed in Germany, and approved for use in 2011 the U.S.

“The device actually sits outside the body,” Dr. Scholl said. “They’re attached to a pnuematic console that keeps the device pumping while their heart can’t.”

The device has saved more than 1,000 lives, but Alicia pushed the technology to its limit.

“Nobody had been on the device for that long,” Dr. Scholl said. “There were things that came up that we never had to deal with before, because we never had to run a device out that far.”

Alicia’s heart is now able to beat on its own, and her mom hopes her daughter will live a healthy life. She added faith is what keeps them going each day.

“We have trust in God because he has helped us until now, and he has kept Alicia with us,” Nydia said.

Forty-six percent of children with heart failure die or undergo a heart transplant within five years of diagnosis, according to the Texas Children’s Hospital. The average wait time for a heart transplant is three months.

Salinas and Dr. Scholl also encouraged people to become organ donors.