Boy Given Heart in Pittsburgh; Infant at Loma Linda Improves

A 3-week-old boy underwent more than 10 hours of heart transplant surgery in Pittsburgh Monday and a week-old infant at Loma Linda Medical Center in California was upgraded from critical to serious condition, 24 hours after he was given a new heart.

Both infants were born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, a lethal underdevelopment of the heart.

10-Hour Operation

Jonathan Stowe, born Jan. 25, entered the operating room at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh around midnight and emerged at 10:15 a.m., said hospital spokeswoman Sue Cardillo. He is the youngest heart transplant patient ever at that hospital.

Jonathan, son of Tabatha and David Stowe of Beaver Falls, Pa., was in critical condition, which is normal immediately after transplant surgery, Cardillo said.

At Loma Linda, Christoffer, son of a U.S. Air Force family, received a new heart in a 5-hour operation performed Sunday by Dr. Leonard Bailey, the surgeon who transplanted a baboon heart into the infant girl known as Baby Fae in 1984.

“Christoffer’s condition was upgraded this morning from critical to serious,” said Dick Schaefer, spokesman for Loma Linda University Medical Center.

The boy had been in Loma Linda’s neonatal intensive care unit for six days, three of them on life support, before the transplant surgery.

In both cases, the identity of the donor was not released. And Christoffer’s family asked that no more information be released, Schaefer said.