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Infants In Need Of Heart Transplants Have More Options
POSTED: 4:01 pm EDT April 18,
2007
UPDATED: 4:16 pm EDT April 18,
2007
The following is a transcript of a report by medical editor Marilyn Brooks that first aired April 18, 2007, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.
If you need a transplant, the organ must come from a donor of compatible blood type to avoid severe rejection, but that no longer applies to infants who need new hearts.
Doctors have found babies can safely get "mismatched hearts" and survive.They're called ABO incompatible transplants and doctors in Toronto made the discovery about 10 years ago.Children's Hospital has performed five in the last year.When Connor Geddes was born, he was perfect in every way but one. His heart had no left chamber, which is referred to as hypo plastic left heart syndrome.It can sometimes be repaired. Doctors tried but failed."The day we put him on the list was a very emotional day," said his mother, Carrie Geddes.That was St. Patrick's Day in 2006."The very next day we got the call there was a heart for him," said Geddes.The donor's tissue and blood did not match Connor's. It was ABO incompatible.Young infants who need new hearts have very limited options. In fact, 25 percent who are now on the transplant list will die before they ever get a chance to get a new heart.In 2002, the United Network for Organ Sharing began to allow incompatible heart transplants in children up to 1-year-old.It was Connor's only chance for survival."The reason we're able to do that is because their immune system is not fully developed, and they're able to accept an organ that is different from their blood group," said Dr. Victor Morell.Connor still has a feeding tube and takes 13 medications every day, including anti-rejection drugs. But if his body totally accepts his new heart, it's called chimerisom, and drugs won't be necessary."If there is a group of patients we would expect chimerisom from, I think it would be the neonates and infants for sure," said Morell.Eighteen people, including six children, die every day waiting for new hearts. Incompatible hearts open the donor pool and are rapidly becoming a lifesaving option for neonates and infantsCurrently, 95,000 Americans are waiting for organs nationwide. Many won't make it.
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If you need a transplant, the organ must come from a donor of compatible blood type to avoid severe rejection, but that no longer applies to infants who need new hearts.
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