Austin teen heads back to school after New Year’s Day heart transplant

On Monday, 13-year-old Rome Henderson walked into her middle school for the first time since December. It was a milestone t hatseemed impossible at the end of 2016.

Rome was admitted into Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas on Dec. 11. She was having chest pains and difficulty breathing. She was nauseated and didn’t want to eat.

“I had never had anything like this before,” she says.

Doctors realized that the left ventricle of her heart was giving out. Fluid was in her lungs. She would need a heart transplant, something her parents had known was a possibility her whole life.

By Christmas Eve, Rome was transported to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, one of only two hospitals in Texas where pediatric heart transplants are done.

She was put on an Impella left ventricular assist device that did the work her heart