Florida Boy, Aided by Reagan’s Intervention, Receives New Liver

A 14-month-old, 18-pound boy whose desperate need for a new liver attracted President Reagan’s attention underwent transplant surgery Friday, hours after his condition had deteriorated seriously.

Ryan Osterblom of Indialantic, Fla., was in critical but stable condition at Children’s Hospital after surgery that lasted more than 10 hours, hospital spokesman Dick Riebling said.

“In my heart, I know Ryan’s going to be just fine,” his mother, Karen Osterblom, said.

Ryan was born with biliary atresia, a blockage of the liver bile ducts. Doctors who performed four operations on him said that he would die without a transplant.

In February, the Osterbloms brought Ryan’s plight to Reagan’s attention through Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). Reagan asked Margaret M. Heckler, secretary of health and human services, to publicize the need for organ donations.

“She used Ryan as a symbol of what was needed,” Karen Osterblom said. “We felt that someone out there was an agreeable parent, and we needed to touch their heart and alert the public that there was a dire need.”

About 130 children nationwide currently need donor livers, said Brian Broznick, organ procurement coordinator for the Pittsburgh Transplant Foundation.

The Reagan Administration’s intervention on Ryan’s behalf distorts the problem of organ shortages, said Linda Sheaffer, executive director of the federal Task Force on Organ Transplantation.

“People . . . think poor Ryan is the only child out there who is in need of a transplant,” she said.

Finding a donor liver for Ryan was particularly difficult because of his small size and relatively rare blood type, B positive, his parents said. Doctors eventually used a liver from a donor with A-type blood, said the boy’s father, Robert Osterblom.

“They decided he was at a critical enough point (that) they needed to do that,” said Robert Osterblom, 48, a civilian engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. “(Transplant pioneer) Dr. Thomas Starzl says he’s done it before without too many problems.”

Ryan and his mother were flown to Pittsburgh on a chartered jet late Thursday. Karen Osterblom said that she was “in shock” when she learned a liver was available.

“Then I said, ‘Praise the Lord,’ ” she said.