Teen becomes one of only two people in the nation to survive rare heart surgery and leave hospital
By Tia Maggio
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SAVANNAH, Georgia (WJCL) — A Savannah teenager is making national medical history after surviving a surgery so rare that only one other person in the country has ever recovered well enough to leave the hospital.
18-year-old Andrew Miles, a recent high school graduate, was born with acute systolic heart failure — a condition that leaves the heart too weak to pump blood.
For years, doctors told his family a transplant wasn’t possible. Many turned him away. That changed when he met Dr. Mani Daneshmand, one of the inventors of the HeartMate 6 LVAD, a mechanical pump designed to replace the function of the failing heart.
“He took Andrew when nobody else would,” Amy Miles, Andrew’s mom, said, “It was our last resort – and he gave him a chance to live.”
Dr. Daneshmand explained how the breakthrough device worked in Andrew’s case.
“We used two pumps – one acting as the left ventricle, and one as the right – to provide him with all the blood flow he needed,” Dr. Daneshmand said.
The procedure is so complex that only a handful of hospitals in the country can perform it. Out of all the patients who have undergone the surgery, just two — including Andrew — have survived and been discharged from the hospital.
“I give Andrew most of the credit,” Dr. Daneshmand said, “He’s an incredibly strong young man who fought hard.”
For Miles, it’s more than a medical milestone — it’s a second chance at life.
“Nothing’s impossible,” Miles said, “At the end of the day, everything is going to work out. No matter the odds, just keep going.”
Andrew’s only limitation now is that he can’t swim. But he says he’s focused on moving forward — planning to get a service dog and making up for lost time with friends.
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