A 21-month-old girl from Douglas is in hospital in England awaiting a heart transplant.

Little Ella Wiseman has been on life support at Freeman hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne since June.

She faces weeks or probably months for a suitable heart.

Mother Amy Ash told the Manx Independent: ’She was 10 months old when we first found out something was wrong with her.

’We took her to the doctor’s and they sent us home with antibiotics, after a week on them she took a bad turn and we had to ring an ambulance for her.

’She was then taken to the children’s ward and sent for an x-ray.

’We got told it was pneumonia. She then took a bad turn in hospital and was taken for another x-ray and we were then told it was heart failure and she got rushed to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool the next day and they diagnosed her with dilated cardiomyopathy.

’We then spent eight months going back and forth to Alder Hey as she just kept getting worse so in the end they sent us to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for a heart transplant assessment.

’We were only in this hospital for about two days before they told us Ella has not got dilated cardiomyopathy, she actually had a rare condition called abnormal coronary artery and would have had it from birth, the left side of her heart has been starved of oxygen since she was born but they think they’ve caught it too late.

’They have done a few operations on Ella to fix her heart - one operation they’ve never done before - they give her heart a chance to recover but nothing has changed within the four months of being here.’

Ella’s parents, Amy and TJ Wiseman, and grandmothers Sandra Ash and Lisa Harrison have now appealed for people to make donations.

Amy said: ’She’s on the immediate transplant list but we could still be waiting up to a year for a heart as they’ve said it’s rare to get one for her size. she also has to stay on two life support machines until her transplant and could still be on one when she’s sent home after transplantation.’

She added: ’We just really want people to know how much it means to us for people to sign up and be an organ donor.’

Amy is also angry the late diagnosis means Ella’s heart is unusable and she requires a transplant. She is in discussion with lawyers about taking legal action.

Amy’s mother Sandra said the agonising stress and worry is exacerbated by the distance.

’I just want to be there,’ she said.

Sandra works at Shoprite and the company has been generous in giving her time off, but it is prohibitively expensive to travel regularly to Newcastle to support Amy, aged 22, and Ella’s father TJ Wiseman.

’There’s a flat the hospital provides but it costs money all the time,’ she said.

They would like to reunite the family in Newcastle at Christmas to celebrate Ella’s second birthday on December 26.

They’d like to give her party a Mr Tumble theme because the programme - aimed at helping children with communication problems - has helped her to use sign language, as a tracheotomy prohibits speech.

They have set up a Facebook page (’go fund me Ella Wiseman’) for people to donate funds to help with travel costs.

Sandra said: ’You smile when you go to work but no one knows you are broken inside. I know for people to lose their life is not what you’d wish on anyone (to be able to give an organ), but when you see the kids in hospital you think: "Oh dear".’