Girl waiting for new heart marks year in hospital

Evie was admitted into hospital on Valentine's Day last year

A four-year-old girl has been living in hospital for a year as she waits for a heart transplant.

Evie Green has dilated cardiomyopathy and was admitted to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital on Valentine's Day in 2023.

Evie, from Middlesbrough, is still on the urgent transplant list.

Her mum, Chloe, has been raising awareness about the need for more organ donors.

Evie's older brother Theo paid her a visit

Evie's older brother, Theo, visited her in hospital on Wednesday, the day of the anniversary.

"It's quite a lot for a family to go through," Chloe said.

"We've got another child as well so we've had to work out a system where one of us is always here with Evie and the other one is always with our little boy, because, unfortunately, he's in school."

'Mean the world'

Evie's condition affects the heart's ability to pump blood around the body.

She has had to have a Berlin Heart device fitted, which can be used to support children in severe heart failure, either until recovery or until a heart transplant is possible.

Chloe said getting a new heart would help Evie "thrive".

"It would mean the world and it would just be a chance of back to normal," she said.

"We're very well aware that a heart transplant isn't a cure for it, but it's an extension of her life, and a good quality of life."

Chloe has been raising awareness about organ donation

There are 17 children waiting for a new heart at the Freeman Hospital, with a national shortage of people on the donor register.

Chloe, 28, said: "We're not waiting for a child to pass away. We're just waiting for someone to make that ultimate sacrifice, because a child has to die for Evie to live, but they won't die because of Evie."

Lynn Robson, from NHS Blood and Transplant, said it was a difficult decision for families to make at an "immense time of sadness and grief".

"But families do explain to us how much comfort they get, and pride, knowing that they've helped someone else," Ms Robson added.