Molinette Hospital performs life-saving heart transplant on Mexican student

Regina, a 19-year-old Mexican medical student, has survived a life-threatening cardiac event following a sudden collapse while swimming in the Cinque Terre, Italy. The student, who was in France on an Erasmus program, suffered a massive heart attack caused by a rare congenital anomaly in her coronary arteries.

After the initial collapse, she was treated at La Spezia hospital, where she suffered cardiac arrest and required ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) to sustain her vital functions. Following a diagnosis at San Martino Hospital in Genoa confirming irreversible damage to her heart muscle, she was transferred to the Molinette Hospital in Turin for an urgent transplant.

To maintain circulation during the two-week waiting period, doctors implanted a state-of-the-art microaxial pump. She eventually received a compatible heart donated from Calabria, successfully undergoing an eight-hour surgical procedure. She is now recovering and preparing to return to Monterrey, Mexico.