Word: transplanter
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...Leonard L. Bailey, the California surgeon who supervised the pioneering transplant last month of a baboon heart to the infant Baby Fac, Predicted soon after the procedure was completed that his tiny patient would lead a "long and healthy" life...
...Leonard Bailey, 41, the pediatric cardiac surgeon who treated Fae, over the years had seen dozens of infants with this defect die, generally within two weeks of birth. While a transplant from a human donor could theoretically be used to help such babies, Bailey was discouraged by the drastic shortage of infant hearts. Seven years ago he began investigating the possibility of using hearts from other species, or xenografts. He performed more than 150 transplants in sheep, goats and baboons, many of them between species. Last December, after what Bailey called "months of agonizing," the Loma Linda institutional review board...
...Switzerland, cyclosporine inhibits organ rejection by partly suppressing the immune system. It is considered safer than earlier drugs used for this purpose because it is less likely to destroy the body's ability to fight infection. Since its first use in the U.S. in 1979 it has revolutionized transplant surgery, raising the one-year survival rate of heart recipients from 65% in the 1970s to 80%. Bailey believed that by focusing on the treatment of newborns, whose immune systems are not yet fully developed, he could further reduce the risks of rejection. Says he: "A newborn is a gracious host...
Ironically, the heart of a two-month-old infant was available the day of Fae's operation. Transplant coordinators from the Regional Organ Procurement Agency at UCLA called Loma Linda hospital to offer the infant's kidneys (the heart was not discussed because Loma Linda does not have a human-heart-transplant program). When word of the potential human donor became public last week, Loma Linda officials explained that the call from the procurement agency had come after the baboon heart was implanted, that the heart of a two-month-old might have been too big for Fae, and that...
...week's end Baby Fae's remarkable progress was making many critics of the experiment think again. Loma Linda doctors expressed relief that their tiny patient had so far avoided "hyperacute rejection," a reaction to foreign tissue that often occurs immediately after a transplant. However, Hinshaw cautioned that the seventh to tenth days after a transplant are a peak period for rejection. Should the child begin to show signs of rejecting the baboon heart, said Hinshaw, a second transplant would be considered. In this event, a human heart was said to be the team's first choice and another baboon...