Teenager has dissolvable heart implant fitted in UK first

A teenage girl has become the first person in the UK to have a dissolvable implant fitted to close a hole in her heart that is around the size of a 10p coin.

Lillie Yale, from Warrington, faced having to have a permanent metal device which would have derailed her dream of becoming a professional rugby player.

But the biodegradable implant will act as a scaffold for her heart to heal itself over the coming months and years.

The device will then fully dissolve and leave behind no trace.

The procedure was performed by surgeons at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool in June.

It is the first time the device, known as Memosorb, has been used on a patient with an atrial septal defect (ASD), a hole in the wall dividing the two upper chambers of the heart, in the UK.

The 14-year-old's mother, Becci Nichols, 38, said her daughter was "healing perfectly" and has since taken part in a 5km run, visited a theme park and returned to playing rugby.

The teenager said: "I'm really happy it's all done now, and it's amazing to know I was the first person in the UK to have this new type of implant.

"I'm enjoying doing the things I love and not having to worry about my heart."

She would not have been able to play rugby if she had the metal implant because there was a risk it could be dislodged by heavy impact before her heart was fully healed, said Dr Salim Jivanji, consultant paediatric cardiologist at Alder Hey.

Read more from Sky News:
King Harald of Norway dies
Injuries suffered in fatal A66 crash revealed

"The device looks very similar to a normal existing device that we have on the market - the difference being that it's made out of a polymer," he said.

He said that with a traditional metal device, tissue would start lining the implant - while Memosorb acts as a "scaffold".

"The body reacts with the structure of the device," he said.

"It slowly covers it with the lining of the heart, and the polymer starts getting dissolved into carbon dioxide and water within the tissue and slowly disappears completely.

"I would say in anywhere between six to 24 months the only thing you'll see is what looks like the a normal septum with no hole in it."

(c) Sky News 2026: Teenager has dissolvable heart implant fitted in UK first