9-Year-Old Girl Has Rare Pediatric Heart-Kidney Transplant

A 9-year-old girl has become just the second child under 10 to undergo a heart-kidney transplant.

Anies Garcia was reported doing well and has already returned home following the July 30th transplant, which was paid for by UCLA after Medi-Cal, the California health insurance for low-income people, declined to cover the procedure it regards as experimental.

Anies, who had been on dialysis since she was 3, is only the eighth child younger than 18 to undergo a kidney-heart transplant. The youngest, an 8-year-old who had the surgery in 1994, is still alive.