Lid of Secrecy Placed on Baby Heart Recipient

The parents of the latest infant heart transplant recipient at Loma Linda University Medical Center have requested blanket secrecy and hospital officials are complying.

A Loma Linda official said Friday that it will not even issue any condition reports on the child, who was 17 days old when she received the heart of a brain-dead infant on Thursday night.

“In compliance with California privacy laws, the medical center will be unable to provide condition reports or any additional information specific to this case at this time,” said a statement released Friday by the hospital.

Both Baby Eve and the donor were flown from different parts of the nation by chartered jet to Southern California, according to spokesman Dick Schaefer.

Second in Recent Months

Baby Eve is the second infant in recent months to receive a heart transplant at Loma Linda. On Nov. 20, Baby Moses was 4 days old when he was given a new heart. Both infants were suffering from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, an invariably fatal condition in which the left side of the heart essentially does not function.

Baby Moses was discharged on Jan. 2. The hospital said Friday that he is “doing well.”

According to the surgeon in both transplants, Dr. Leonard Bailey, who is chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Loma Linda University Medical Center, the center has been receiving a number of referrals concerning babies with hypoplastic left heart syndrome from all over the country. The problem, he said, is finding donors.

Bailey has cited such a lack of donor hearts as the reason that he transplanted a baboon heart into Baby Fae, also a victim of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, in October, 1984. Baby Fae died 20 1/2 days later.