Unique Heart Transplant For Boy, 5
In California, a family is celebrating the miraculous survival of a 5-year-old boy.
Doctors kept him alive for an unusually long span with an artificial heart.
But,
Jason showed some of the spirit that kept him going when there seemed little hope he'd live when he tried to wink and smile for reporters after his transplant.
His father, Guanglin, says, "He's laughing a little bit, so it's good."
Jason's heart failed last summer, Blackstone explains.
Doctors at Stanford's Packard Children's Hospital fitted him with an experimental artificial heart while he waited for a transplant.
It's supposed to be short-term, but Jason spent eight months on the artificial heart, longer than any child in North America.
Guanglin says the family worried a great deal during that time because they never knew what as going to happen the next day.
And the pump causes complications. Jason suffered two strokes. He became too sick, doctors said, to have a transplant. But then he strengthened, just as a donor heart became available.
"The will," marvels Dr. Marc Pelletier, a heart surgeon at Packard, "was all his. He's a tenacious little boy."
For all their joy, Jason's parents know any heart transplant also has a story of heartbreak.
Tears streaming down his face, Guanglin said, "Our son survived. But some tragedy happened to another kid."
Now, just over a week after getting his new heart, Jason is growing stronger quickly, doctors say.
"Happy. Unbelievably happy," is how Guanglin describes the mood of Jason's family.
Doctors note that an adult in Jason's condition probably would have died. But they expect him to live a long, healthy life.