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NOVOSIBIRSK, December 20. /TASS/. Russian surgeons from the Academician Meshalkin National Medical Research Center (NMRCC) have performed the first successful heart transplant in Siberia for a teenager who had lived with a mechanical heart support system. This was reported by the center's press service. By the age of 16, the patient’s heart had become enlarged for unknown reasons and was no longer able to handle the load. The girl was diagnosed with progressive heart failure. Medication therapy failed to restore the heart's pumping function, but transplanting a donor heart to the teenager had been impossible due to a lack of pediatric donor organs. A state-of-the-art left ventricular assist device was implanted into Lilia’s chest and heart. The connected batteries were placed externally, so the patient was constantly connected by wires to a two-kilogram battery, which she carried in a special bag and closely monitored its charge level. The girl lived with an artificial heart until almost her 18th birthday, after which she underwent a heart transplant.