Recycled Parts: Doctors successfully transplant heart dropped in street while being rushed to hospital

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 01/24/2012 7:43 PM | Last Modified: 01/24/2012 11:02 PM

Erika Hernandez, 28, waves from inside an ambulance after being discharged from the hospital where she had a heart transplant in Mexico City, Tuesday Jan. 24, 2012. Hernandez made national news on Jan. 11 when her new heart was accidentally dropped while being transported to the hospital where she was waiting for surgery. Mexico City police said they used a helicopter to deliver the heart in "a rapid, precision maneuver." But after exiting the chopper, a medic stumbled and the plastic-wrapped heart tumbled out of a cooler onto the street. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

MEXICO CITY - A heart that was dropped on the ground while being transported to a hospital has been successfully transplanted into a 28-year-old hair stylist.

Dr. Jaime Saldivar says Erika Hernandez doesn't yet know that her new heart made national news when a medic stumbled and the plastic-wrapped heart tumbled out of a cooler onto the street two weeks ago.

Saldivar says it will be up to the family to tell her.

A rosy-cheeked Hernandez spoke briefly with reporters on Tuesday and thanked the donor's family, saying "I have no words to express what I'm feeling right now."

Hernandez was born with a congenital heart defect. She received the heart of a man who died in a car accident.

Here are some photos of the heart being dropped: