WESTMINSTER : Pagers Will Tell Parents Baby’s Fate

Westminster Police Officer Charles Shinn always has two pagers hooked on his belt. Whichever beeps first could signal life or death for his 10-day-old son, Robbie.

Robbie, who is at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, was born with one of his four heart chambers shriveled and an artery blocked. He will remain at CHOC until a heart donor is found or until his heart tires and fails.

If Robbie’s condition deteriorates, CHOC doctors will use the first pager to notify Shinn and his wife Renee of trouble. If a heart donor with B+ blood type is found, Loma Linda University Medical Center in San Bernardino County will send out the good news on the second pager and Robbie will be immediately taken to surgery.

“He could die within hours or hang on for a couple months,” said Shinn, 32, of Midway City. Robbie has tubes and wires running into his little body to monitor his vital signs and provide nutrition. He is administered two medications that keep his heart beating and his body sedated, so he can rest.

Most babies in Robbie’s condition live for about three weeks with medical assistance. Almost half of babies die before a donor is found.

“We’d just love to pick him up and take him home,” Charles Shinn said, standing over his son watching his chest flutter up and down as his heart and lungs send only partially oxygenated blood to his body. “But we have to go day-by-day.”

Colleagues at the Police Department have been supporting the Shinns during the 10 days of their child’s life. Officers have donated vacation time to allow Shinn to take time off and are ready to baby-sit the couple’s two other sons, ages 10 and 5. On Monday, police also began wearing baby-blue ribbons under their badges, which they will continue to do until a donor is found.

Dr. Sudeep Singh said that Robbie has hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In a normal infant’s heart, blood is pumped through the two chambers on the right side of the heart, then to the lungs and back to the left side of the heart where the oxygen-rich blood is sent by the lower chamber--called the ventricle--to the body.

In Robbie’s heart, the left ventricle does not work. A small artery provides the outlet for the blood from the left side of the heart, where it travels back to the right side and out to the body. About 1 in 6,000 babies are born with that problem, but Robbie’s B+ blood may make it difficult to locate a donor; only 8.5% of the population has a matching blood type.

A compatible donor would be an infant who died without suffering heart damage. The blood type and tissue must match as well as the size of the heart. If a donor is found, Robbie’s chance of survival is as high as 85%.

The day Robbie was born doctors noticed that he was breathing rapidly. They ran some tests, and Robbie went into intensive care a few hours after birth. “It was devastating,” Shinn said. “I sat with him for hours. You want to cry and try to understand why.”

The Shinns pay visits to their son throughout the day and evening, traveling between hospital and home.

“He responds to my voice and his mommy’s too,” Shinn said. “He tries to open his eyes for daddy.”

But Robbie has difficulty opening his eyes: They are swollen from medication. His parents held him last Thursday, but doctors have advised that it is probably better to let Robbie lie still so that his heart can beat more slowly.

The Shinns’ baby is first on the waiting list for a B+ donor. They are praying that the right beeper will sound.

“When this thing beeps, we are out of here,” Shinn said.