First Teen Gets Artificial Heart Pump

Most teenage boys can't bear to be separated from their iPods or cell phones. But it's another type of technology that Frank Desantiago can't do without--literally.

Desantiago is one of the only children in the world living with a mechanical heart.

When FOX 26's Damali Keith met him, the 16-year-old was kicking around a soccer ball and enjoying a beautiful autumn day in Houston. He looked like any other healthy, strong teenage boy.

But looks can be deceiving.

Six months ago, life started to drastically change for Desantiago. He was having trouble breathing and suffering extreme fatigue. He thought it was the flu.

Turns out, at only 16 years old, he was experiencing heart failure.

"His heart was working so slowly and not being able to push the blood forward that he started clotting blood in his heart. At that point he suffered a temporary stroke," says Texas Children's Hospital heart surgeon Dr. David Morales.

Desantiago's heart had grown to twice it's normal size. It could no longer properly pump blood through his body, so he was shutting down.

The absence of blood and oxygen in his body was causing his organs to fail and he was suffocating. Desantiago was lifeflighted to Texas Children's from the Valley and rushed into surgery.

"I was hooked to all these machines, I.V.'s in both hands. A lot of pain, too," says Desantiago.

Dr. Morales saved the teenager's life by putting a device in his chest. It's a mechanical heart that was only approved by the FDA a year and a half ago.

"We are the only pediatric hospital presently in the world that has this device called the Heart Mate 2," says Dr. Morales.

After months in the Intensive Care Unit and confined to the hospital, Desantiago finally gets to go home.

The 16-year-old is the first child in the world to go home with this device in his chest.

He still needs a heart transplant but the teenager says, "I feel normal again."