Critical Condition Called Normal : Santa Ana Baby Has Heart Surgery in Boston

An 8-day-old Santa Ana infant who became the recipient of a generous donation and was flown to Boston for specialized heart surgery was reported in critical condition Friday night.

“Baby Rodriguez,” who does not yet have a name, underwent a 3 1/2-hour operation Friday without any complications, said Nancy Collins, spokeswoman for Children’s Hospital in Boston. His critical-condition status is “normal following this sort of procedure,” she said.

The baby suffers the same heart defect that afflicted “Baby Fae,” the infant who received a baboon’s heart at Loma Linda University Medical Center and died 20 days later because of a blood mismatch. Two other babies recently survived infant heart transplants at Loma Linda.

Before a benefactor made it possible for Baby Rodriguez and a four-member medical team to travel to Boston on Wednesday, the child’s parents had considered the rare infant-to-infant heart transplant at Loma Linda. But because doctors thought the chances of finding a suitable heart in time to save the child’s life were slim, they recommended the surgery available in Boston.

When Mayela Rodriguez Orozco and Oscar Louis Orozco, the baby’s parents, said they couldn’t afford the $30,000 it would cost to transport their child to the east, staff members of Martin Luther Hospital Medical Center in Anaheim got on the phone to look for some help.

“It’s not a usual thing. We are always looking for benefactors who can help the hospital over all, but not for one case in particular,” said hospital spokeswoman Betty Bartley, adding this was the first such instance she knew about in her eight years at the hospital.

The anonymous donor provided the transportation while a second benefactor paid about $200 for the parents to fly to Boston on a commercial flight the same day, Bartley said.

The baby, born Jan. 23 at Chapman General Hospital in Orange and transferred shortly after to the Anaheim hospital, suffers from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, an almost invariably fatal congenital malformation that prevents the side of the heart that pumps blood to the body from fully developing.