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A revolutionary pacemaker the size of a grain of rice is keeping a British grandmother alive.

Doctors say Joan Smith, 71, is the first patient outside of clinical trials to be fitted with the ingenious device.

The former council receptionist had the operation at Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital in February.

She lived life to the full with husband Alan, 75, and five grandchildren.

But after two attempts to have a conventional pacemaker failed, her entire life had been transformed by the new wireless device.

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Joan, diagnosed with cardiomyopathy 21 years ago, struggled to walk far, and suffered constant breathlessness.

She said: "I feel as if I'm a new woman.

"I didn't feel any fatigue at all and it had been fatigue that I had been feeling previously - not breathlessness like some people experience.

Doctors stabilised her with medication for 20 years, but last year she was told she needed surgery.

(Image: PA Wire)

She was fitted with a new type called a WiSE pacemaker, which is implanted directly into tissue that lines the left chamber of the heart.

Like a conventional unit, it controls abnormal heart rhythms using low-energy electrical pulses - but without the need for wires.

Simon James, consultant cardiologist, said: "For Joan, as soon as the device was switched on there was a huge change in the pumping of the heart.

"Her blood pressure went up from the moment it was switched on so we felt confident she would begin to feel better quickly.

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"The technology enables us to fit the device exactly where an individual patient needs it, which could increase the number of patients who respond to this therapy, helping them to live a longer, more active life."

A spokesman for South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said James Cook was one of the first hospitals with the new type of treatment outside of a research study.

(Image: Getty)

“I feel very privileged, very lucky,” added Joan, of Middlesbrough, who will continue to be monitored regularly by the team.

“I knew it was a new type of pacemaker and a new procedure, but I trusted the doctors implicitly and knew they wouldn’t have sent me down that road if they didn’t think it was going to be beneficial."

Surgeons and cardiologists conventionally treat heart failure with a Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy (CRT) device, known as a bi-ventricular pacemaker. But up to 30 per cent of patients fail to respond to that treatment - with lead or wire failures being the main complication.

Andrew Shute, Vice President Europe for EBR Systems, said because WiSE Technology delivers stimulation directly to the left ventricle, it is seen as being “more consistent with the functioning of a healthy heart”.

Around 900,000 suffer from heart failure in the UK, and many are expected to benefit from the new device.