Infant Boy With Heart Defect Dies After Surgery in Boston

A 9-day-old Santa Ana boy, born with a usually fatal heart condition and flown to pioneering heart surgeons in Boston, died Saturday, less than 24 hours after surgery.

The boy, born Jan. 23 at Chapman General Hospital in Orange and known only as “Baby Rodriguez,” died of heart failure at 10:15 a.m. Saturday at Children’s Hospital in Boston, a spokeswoman said.

The infant had been listed in critical condition Friday after a 3 1/2-hour operation without any complications.

The baby suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the same heart defect that afflicted “Baby Fae,” the infant who received a baboon’s heart at Loma Linda University Medical Center on Oct. 26, 1984, and died 20 days later.

Chose Surgery in Boston

The child’s parents, Mayela Rodriguez Orozco and Oscar Louis Orozco, had considered a rare infant-to-infant heart transplant at Loma Linda but opted instead for the surgery available in Boston. Doctors at Martin Luther Hospital Medical Center in Anaheim, where the baby was transferred shortly after birth, told the Orozcos that the chance of finding a suitable heart donor in time to save the baby was slim.

Because the couple’s insurance did not cover travel costs, employees of the Anaheim hospital found an anonymous benefactor to provide transportation for the baby and for a four-member medical team that accompanied him to Boston. Those expenses otherwise would have cost the family $30,000.