Three-Year Old Girl Who Has Had Four Heart Transplants Celebrates Christmas

A three-year old girl who has already had her fourth heart celebrates Christmas at home, according to the Daily Mail.

Scarlett Leybourne was diagnosed with an enlarged heart when she was only six months old. Since then, she was placed at the top of the transplant list and was kept alive by an artificial heart. However, even with the transplant, Scarlett's doctors advised her parents, Ashleigh Leybourne, 28 and Darren Ungurs, 34, to expect the worst. At that time, the couple already made arrangements for funeral services. After Scarlett recovered from her transplant, her heart healed on its own but shortly after she suffered from a nasty chest infection and was once again forced to rely on an artificial heart.

Four months later, she underwent another transplant and recovered fully. Ashleigh describes the kind of happiness that she feels now that her daughter is at home without any tubes or the help of doctors and nurses. This will be Scarlett's first Christmas without any complications. Their family cannot wait to spend the day with the little girl who no longer needs to be kept in isolation. "We're so excited for Christmas this year. We are going to spend the day with all of our family, which we couldn't do last year because Scarlett was so ill she wasn't allowed to come into contact with other people," said Miss Leybourne.

"When she was ill, we went from being a normal family to being in pieces. It was absolutely awful. Then we thought she had recovered and she ended up in hospital again, we just couldn't believe she had gone back to square one - well, even worse. We didn't expect her to make it through. She was so ill but now she has recovered and we are just so relieved."