A baby girl, who was the youngest heart patient in Britain to have a mini-defibrillator fitted before her heart transplant, has died aged 17 months.
Carina Marcangelo, who lived with her parents and sister in Esher, had an ICD fitted after a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle.
After a long wait, she was given a second chance at life when she had a heart transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in April.
Carina returned home in May after 223 days in hospital.
Parents Nicole and Darren Marcangelo, who campaigned for more children to be put on the organ donor register, posted the devastating news on their daughter’s website on Wednesday, August 28 – the day after she died.
The post read: “It is too difficult to put into any meaningful words how this little person with such huge spirit affected our lives and all those who were lucky enough to meet her.
“We are broken and are not sure how to carry on, because there will be such a huge void in our lives.
“We will miss you and love you forever baba, but we know you are no longer in pain and are playing with all the other special angels who have been taken too soon.
“We were blessed with four and a half very special months with our baby because of the generosity of one family who we will always be grateful to and who will always be in our thoughts.”
Messages of support flooded in to the family’s website this week, which can be viewed at carinamarcangelo.com/carinas-diary.
Find out about organ donation and the NHS through facebook.com/organdonationuk.
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