A five-year-old KwaZulu-Natal boy made history when he became the youngest person in Africa to receive a mechanical heart implantation.In what is considered a groundbreaking operation, doctors from the Maboneng Heart Institute, at the Netcare Sunninghill Hospital‚ inserted a heart ventricular assist device (HVAD) into Mnotho Mndebele’s "severely damaged" heart, which helps it to pump blood.Mndebele‚ from Newcastle‚ weighs about 17kg — making him one of the smallest and youngest people to have undergone this type of operation in the world‚ according to Dr Viljee Jonker‚ a cardiothoracic surgeon who led the implantation team.He suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)‚ a condition in which the left ventricle of the heart becomes enlarged and weakened and is no longer able to pump blood properly.After being in an intensive-care unit for four months, Mndebele is expected to return home this week, where he should live a "normal life", Jonker said."We fully expect him to be able to go t...
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