Gifts Enable Son of Solidarity Activist to Have Heart Surgery
The 6-year-old son of a former Polish solidarity labor activist underwent a second operation Saturday after apparently successful heart transplant surgery that was made possible by donations of airline tickets, surgeons’ time and $25,000 for hospital fees.
Piotr Sternik, who received the transplant Friday, was operated on again Saturday to stop excessive bleeding, a development physicians said was not unusual.
Stanford Medical Center said Piotr was “doing well.”
Surgeons Norman Shumway and John Macoviak grafted a new ventricle and pulmonary artery from a human donor onto Piotr’s heart Friday to correct a congenital defect that doctors say eventually would have suffocated him by forcing blood to bypass his lungs.
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