A young mother who was facing death has a new lease of life because she can now plug herself into the electric mains to keep her faulty heart beating.

Kirstin Taylor, 32, was told the future was bleak after a massive heart attack stopped the organ from functioning properly.

Her only hope of survival lay with an unwieldy device which is fitted to the heart to keep it beating.

She is now the first woman in Scotland to get the pioneer- ing machine, but it has changed her life in more ways than one.

It runs on electricity, so needs a nightly charge to keep it going. And when she goes out of the house she has to carry two huge batteries with her.

The mother-of-one, from Westhill, outside Aberdeen, said: "Now I plug myself into the wall every night - just like I do with my mobile phone.

"It's very strange and I'm still getting used to it. When I first saw the machine I didn't want anything to do with it. But I had no choice but to go through with it. I didn't want to die. I want to be here for my little girl."

Mrs Taylor was born with a hole in her heart and had to undergo an operation to fix the problem at the age of four. After that she had no idea anything was wrong and was able to give birth to Erin, now 5, without any problems.

But two years ago, as she walked her daughter home from playgroup, she was suddenly hit by a heart attack.

She recalled: "It came totally out of the blue. As far as I was aware, I was fit and healthy. It was a lovely sunny day and we were talking about what we were having for lunch.

"But when I got into the house everything started swirling and I was covered in sweat. My left side started to go numb."

The attack left Mrs Taylor's heart fragile, and doctors discovered it was working at only 40% capacity.

She was put on the heart transplant list but her high antibody count meant she was unlikely to find a donor.

After almost two years, no-one had came forward and doctors floated the idea of having a Ventricular Assist Device fitted to the left side of her heart.

She was sceptical until her other organs began to slow down, leaving her sick and weak, because they were not getting enough support from her heart.

After several setbacks, she was fitted with the HeartMate II eleven weeks ago at the Harefield Hospital in London.

A cable runs from her abdomen to the device in her heart. It is powered by two batteries and a control panel, which weigh 3kg and must go everywhere with her.

Mrs Taylor, who had to give up her job as an administrator, said: "If I go out I've got to put the batteries in an over- the-shoulder bag or in a special holster.

"I've been trying to hide it under my clothes, but you can still see the cables because it's bulky. I know that people are going to stare, but I'm not bothered. The main thing is that I'm still here."

To stay alive, Mrs Taylor has to plug the machine into the wall every night to charge it up. She and husband Garry must also test it once a week to make sure the back-up power is still running.

She said: "I've got to think about things like power cuts. If the electricity goes down when I'm sleeping I could get ill really quickly.

"I've also got three sets of batteries and have to ensure they're all charged up at all times. There's a lot to cover."