New Heart for One Man, Waiting Game for Another : First County Transplant Is by UCI Team

Surgeons at UCI Medical Center transplanted the heart of a brain-dead El Toro Marine into a Huntington Beach man Friday in a five-hour operation that marked Orange County’s first heart transplant.

The patient, identified as a 26-year-old musician, was in critical but stable condition Friday afternoon after the operation, but doctors said he was alert and resting comfortably. His name was withheld at the request of his family.

A special transplant team headed by cardiac surgeon Richard Ott began the operation shortly after 1 a.m. at UCI Medical Center after a donor heart became available.

The heart was that of Staff Sgt. Richard William Bottjer, a flight information specialist at the El Toro Marine Air Station who was critically injured in a brawl outside a Fullerton restaurant Wednesday night.

Fullerton police said they had questioned several Cal State Fullerton football players who may have been involved in the scuffle, but no arrests had been made.

Declared Brain-Dead

Bottjer, 30, of Placentia, was rushed to St. Jude Hospital and Rehabilitation Center with severe head injuries and was declared brain-dead. When it was discovered that Bottjer was carrying an organ donor card, his family was contacted in New York for approval, UCI officials said.

Ott said the recipient had been on the donor waiting list since early January and had been in and out of the hospital since the first of the year.

“He falls into a category of so many patients like this who become sort of cardiac cripples, who lose their capability to be employed or self-employed,” said Ott, 35, who was recently recruited from the University of Arizona, Tucson, by UCI to start a transplant program.

Ott, who said he had performed about 65 heart transplants at other hospitals, said the patient had suffered from congestive heart failure and arrhythmia, a disturbance of the heart rhythm. Without the transplant, he was given a 10% chance of survival.

“At this point in time, he is doing well and stable but remains in critical condition, which is to be expected after undergoing this type of procedure,” Ott said in a Friday afternoon news conference. “We expect that the next 24 to 48 hours will also be a critical period of time. The patient is awake and alert and responsive . . . but the outcome remains unpredictable.”

If all goes well, Ott said, the patient could be released from the hospital within 17 to 21 days. Given similar operations, Ott said, the man’s chance of surviving another five years would be between 65% and 75%.

“The long-term prospects of these patients continue to improve,” he said. “Younger recipients have significantly more reserve and ability to overcome adversity. His outlook, because of his age, is somewhat improved.”

Over the past few months, Ott said, he became impressed with his patient’s optimisim and confidence. Just before going into surgery, Ott said, the young man looked him in the eye and said, “Don’t screw up.”

The patient, a bachelor, was described by Ott as a guitarist and “a very bright fellow with a remarkable sense of humor, a person whom we’ve become quite fond of over the course of time.” The surgeon said the patient’s parents and siblings were at the hospital during the operation.

Morale Boost for UCI

As for UCI, the transplant was a morale boost for the medical center and its staff, who have been competing with Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach for the bragging rights of performing the county’s first heart transplant.

Ott praised the transplant team of doctors Alan Gazzaniga, Akio Wakabayashi, Brian Palafox, Robert Miller and Herman Pang and said the operation went smoothly and without complications.

“Approximately seven months we have been working with this purpose in mind, dedicating our efforts towards this end,” he said. “It is gratifying that in this insitutution, where although it is a procedure that is commonly performed both nationwide and worldwide, it is still a novelty in an institution where such a procedure has not been undertaken before.

“I was thrilled with how well everything had taken place and how well everyone on the team had functioned.”

While little was released about the recipient, the donor was described as a career Marine who had enlisted in January, 1977. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and worked in aviations operations at El Toro, assisting in the preparation of plans and orders and maintaining and compiling flight data information.

Decorated Marine

A Marine spokesperson said Bottjer had accumulated three Good Conduct Medals and two certificates of commendation. He also received a meritorious unit commendation medal.

He is survived by a wife and a son.

According to Sgt. Jeff Roop of the Fullerton Police Department, Bottjer and two friends from the base had gone to Baxter’s Restaurant at the corner of Chapman Avenue and State College Boulevard on Wednesday night and had gotten into a fight with several other men shortly after midnight.

“They get into an argument, which turns into wrestling, pushing and shoving,” Roop said.

After the restaurant management threw the group outside, Bottjer and one of the Marines, identified by police as Thomas Robert Duran, 22, apparently continued fighting with a group of four to six of the men.

“There were no weapons, just a fistfight,” Roop said.

By the time police arrived to break up the brawl, Bottjer was lying on the ground with severe head injuries.

Times staff writers Dianne Klein and Lynn Smith contributed to this story.