A MOTHER-OF-FOUR has died after a worldwide search by doctors failed to find a cure for her heart condition.

Emma Hall died in hospital on Easter Saturday, aged only 22, after losing a six-month battle against a mystery virus that left her needing a heart transplant.

Her devastated children now face growing up without their mother.

When the transplant was rejected, surgeons issued an Internet plea to colleagues around the world after trying every treatment known, but none came in time to save her.

Emma's parents, Carol and Sydney, of Redesdale Road, Southwick, Sunderland, paid tribute to their daughter's brave battle through a heart transplant and months of intensive treatment.

Emma, of Red House, Sunderland, leaves her childhood sweetheart, Anthony, and their four children, Keon, five, Corey, four, Kyla, two, and Kaye, one, who was only six months old when she was taken ill.

Carol said she thought that her daughter had simply caught the flu at the end of last September.

But as her condition deteriorated, doctors at Sunderland Royal Hospital discovered that a virus had made her heart swell to three times its normal size.

She was then rushed to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for emergency treatment.

Emma had the transplant in October. But despite the heart being a near-perfect match, her body rejected it within weeks and she was left bedridden.

Her father said: "They said they had tried everything. But she never complained and was fighting to her last breath."

The funeral will be held at Sunderland Crematorium on Monday, at 3pm.