Miracle Heart Comes in Time to Save a Seven-Month-Old Baby

Lincoln Seay was born with a rare birth defect, Heterotaxy Syndrome, that caused his heart to grow on the wrong side of his body. So, he had to undergo multiple surgeries to survive.

Despite this, the seven-month-old's heart was declining. He was badly in need of a heart transplant. Therefore, Lincoln's parents flew from Alaska to Seattle praying that they would get a heart from somewhere to keep their baby alive.

‘A seven-month-old boy with a failing heart was saved with a rare, last-minute transplant at Seattle Children�s Hospital. ’

After waiting for months, their wishes came true with a heart donation. But unfortunately, the heart transplant got really complicated and challenging as the baby had a cardiac arrest just before the scheduled surgery. Lincoln turned purple and it was hard to revive him.

The heart was yet to reach the hospital and doctors at the Seattle Children's Hospital immediately put the baby on the heart bypass machine that was intended to be used during the surgery.

"The remarkable thing was we were able to get him on machine quickly. It can take two hours and we did it in 12 minutes and doing CPR," said Dr.Michael McMullen, surgical director of heart transplantation at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Doctors opened the baby's chest and compressed his heart while waiting for the donor's heart to arrive in time. Like a miracle, the heart came in time and it took about four hours for the surgeons to transplant it into Lincoln's body.

After the operation, his parents reported that Lincoln woke up feeling vibrant and was able to stay up for hours without feeling tired. The baby is recovering now and will be discharged soon from the hospital.

Source: Medindia