What a fascinating question this has been to research!
As you are no doubt aware, the earliest successful child heart
transplant surgery in the US was performed on 4-year-old James
Lovette.
"James P. Lovette, the first successful pediatric heart transplant
patient in the United States, was featured in an in-depth article by
Heidi Evans that appeared in the New York Daily News on Sunday, April
13, 2003. He received his new heart when he was four years old, in
1984..."
Columbia University Department of Surgery
http://www.columbiasurgery.org/news/newsmakers/2003_txpat.html
"Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center's then Chief of Transplant
Surgery, Eric Rose, MD, and then Director of Surgery, Keith Reetsma,
MD, made medical history on June 9, 1984. On that day they
transplanted a heart into a 4½-year-old child from Denver named James
Patrick Lovette. Because the heart was so small, the surgeons had to
wear magnifying eyeglasses during the 5 ½-hour procedure, which was
the first successful heart transplant in a child.
Born with a congenital heart defect, J.P. Lovette underwent surgery
immediately after birth that bought him time until he could undergo a
transplant. Now a young adult, J.P. told ABC's 'Good Morning America'
in November 1997 that he hopes to become a doctor."
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
http://www.nyp.org/about/lea_way_ach.html
From a very interesting article about pediatric heart transplants:
"Between December, 1967, and October, 1984, the dates of the first two
baby-heart transplants in the United States, an estimated 10,000 U.S.
babies were born with the deadly hypoplastic left-heart syndrome."
Loma Linda University
http://www.llu.edu/info/legacy/Legacy4.html
Just a few weeks after your daughter's surgery, on October 26, 1984,
the "Baby Fae" controversy, involving the transplantation of a
baboon's heart into a newborn infant, made headlines:
"Run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Loma Linda was renowned for
its pediatric surgery, and one of its most talented surgeons was Dr.
Leonard Bailey. While working at a children's hospital in Toronto, Dr.
Bailey proposed xenografts -- cross-species heart transplants -- as a
possible way to save victims of hypoplastic heart, a fatal condition
in which the left side of the heart is under-developed at birth...
A Loma Linda research grant permitted Bailey to proceed with his
experiments. Devoting seven years to the project, he performed dozens
of cross-species transplants on animals. Two days prior to Baby Fae's
surgery, a review board gave him permission to replace his little
patient's failing heart with that of a young female baboon. Before
compatibility tests could be completed, however, Baby Fae's heart
ceased to function... In Loma Linda's basement, Dr. Bailey extracted
the heart from one of the hospital's research colony of six baboons.
After a four hour operation, Baby Fae's new heart was functioning on
its own... The baboon heart gave Baby Fae twenty one more days to
live, making her the longest surviving recipient of an animal heart.
She died on November 15 when her kidneys failed and her heart stopped
beating."
Eighties Club
http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id238.htm
Unless some child younger than the age of two underwent successful
heart transplant surgery between June 9, 1984 (the date of James
Lovette's surgery) and October 8, 1984 (the date of your daughter's
transplant), your child would have been the youngest successful heart
transplant patient at the time of her surgery. I have found no
evidence that there was another successful pediatric heart transplant
during that narrow window of time, and I believe you are
well-justified in saying that your daughter was, as of October 8,
1984, the youngest successful heart transplant recipient.
Search terms used:
"pediatric" + "heart transplant" + "youngest"
"child" + "heart transplant" + "youngest"
"pediatric" + "heart transplant" + "earliest"
"child" + "heart transplant" + "earliest"
"lovette" + "transplant" + "1984"
"heart transplant" + "1984"
If anything I've said is unclear, or if any of the links do not work
for you, please request clarification; I'll gladly offer further
assistance before you rate my answer.
Heartfelt congratulations to you and your daughter on this very
special date! And blessings upon the family of the donor; the decision
to donate the organs of a loved one can help to bring triumph from
tragedy.
Best wishes,
pinkfreud |
