Heart Transplant Gives Baby New Life
March 2, 2006 — -- Less than a month ago, a family faced the unbearable grief of losing an infant son while another family prepared to mourn for its gravely ill baby. Now, through one act of kindness, one child has a new lease on life, and both families have peace.
Nicole and Michael Draper were devastated on July 11, 2005, when twins Nick and Nate were born with dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease where the heart muscles are not strong enough to pump efficiently. Both needed heart transplants to survive.
"The day they were born, they immediately started having complications and quickly went downhill," said Nicole, who described herself as scared, sad and terrified at the time.
The twins were transferred from Arizona to Los Angeles, where doctors at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital determined that Nick's case was more severe than his brother's and that he would need the first heart available for transplant.
Finding a heart from another infant is very difficult because the pool of potential donors is so small. Experts say infants are less likely than older children to be involved in a fatal accident. They're protected by car seats, watched more closely by adults, and are overall in a safer environment than older children. Parents of newborns also tend to not think about organ donation.
But seven months after their twins were born, the Drapers got the call they had been waiting for -- a donor heart was available.
"I was holding Nicholas on my lap at the hospital when the call came," Nicole said. "It was almost surreal."
In Florida, Tracy and Russell York had been trying to have a baby for five years before Jordan was born last year.
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