Toddler Dies 5 Days After Receiving Heart Transplant : Medicine: Boy, 2, suffers brain damage, apparently from long-term use of heart-lung equipment. He had been flown to Loma Linda from Hawaii in a life-saving effort.

Five days after receiving a heart transplant at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, a 2-year-old Hawaiian boy who was born with a dime-sized hole in his heart died Thursday morning.

His surgeon, Dr. Anees Razzouk, said young Jason Jenette, who had been in a coma for 24 hours, was declared brain dead and detached from his life support system. His parents were at his side.

“Jason gradually deteriorated in that he became more unresponsive and he drifted into a deep coma,” said Razzouk. “The hope for a meaningful and functional life for Jason was gone.”

Tests on Wednesday revealed that Jason had suffered extensive brain damage, a complication sometimes associated with long-term use of the kind of heart-lung bypass equipment that had kept him alive for 11 days, Razzouk said.

The child’s death ended a dramatic effort that also involved the Coast Guard and a medical team from Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Jason, who would have turned 3 next month, had been an active child, despite being born with a congenital heart defect. But problems developed when he underwent corrective surgery May 27 at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu to close up the hole in his heart.

When doctors were unable to revive his heart after the operation, they arranged for Jason to get a heart transplant in California because the procedure is not available in Hawaii.

Children’s Hospital sent a team of medical personnel to Hawaii along with a heart-lung machine developed by the hospital. But it was impossible to transport the child to the mainland by commercial airline because he was hooked up to the large bypass machine.

The Coast Guard stepped in, carrying the boy and the medical team on a C-130 Hercules transport plane. Jason stayed at Children’s Hospital in Orange until a heart became available, and he was taken by van to Loma Linda University Medical Center for the transplant.

Although Jason had to remain on the heart-lung machine after the 5 1/2-hour surgery last Saturday and was listed in extremely critical condition because of lung congestion, his lungs had improved enough Tuesday night for him to be taken off the medically risky equipment and maintained only on a ventilator. The boy began moving and opening and closing his eyes.

But suddenly brain damage occurred, apparently from hemorrhaging. “I think we were 95% of the way to getting this child through,” said Dr. Leonard Bailey, surgical director of the heart transplant program at Loma Linda. “It was a major rescue effort and we just missed.”

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer William Atkinson, who with his family brought Jason a large teddy bear when he was staying at CHOC, said, “I have two sons of my own, so I got kind of close to the family in this case. It’s hurting right now.”