‘Calvin’ Was Skipped Over for ‘Jesse’ : Baby in Kentucky Goes Home With New Heart

“Baby Calvin,” who gained prominence when he was skipped over for “Baby Jesse” on a national heart donor list, went home Monday in the arms of his mother.

Patricia Cardin, 31, with her husband, Wendell, 58, standing by her side, said she is grateful that her son, 2-month-old Robert Dean Cardin, is alive.

“Theoretically, he would have been dead two weeks by now if he had not had a transplant,” she said. “We are grateful with any time we have with him now.”

The boy received his plum-sized heart in an experimental transplant June 13 at Kosair Children’s Hospital.

Jesse Goes First

Robert, whose name was not released until after the operation to protect his parents’ privacy, drew national attention in June when Jesse Dean Sepulveda of Southern California received a donor heart ahead of him, although Robert had been on the donor list longer. Jesse has since been released from Loma Linda Medical Center.

The infants, who were born on the same day, were both about 3 weeks old when they received their hearts.

Doctors deny that the heart that went to Jesse, after the child’s parents made a plea for a donor on a nationally televised show, should have gone to Robert. But it caused experts to question the integrity of an organ-donor network that can be compromised by publicity.

Robert was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, in which the left side of the heart is too small and weak to pump blood to the body. His doctors said he would have lived no more than two months without the transplant.