science · 20 November 1985 · 39 years ago
In 1985, a successful heart transplant to a 4-day-old infant, Eddie Anguiano known then as Baby Moses, was performed by Dr. Leonard Lee Bailey of the Loma Linda University Medical Center. Eddie had been born with the fatal heart defect hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and had only days to live. Luckily, the heart of a brain-dead baby became available. His was the third such transplant attempted. The previous two were unsuccessful, but Eddie thrived. By his 10th birthday, almost 300 other children at Loma Linda, 203 of them under six months old, had their faulty hearts replaced. Eddie celebrated his 21st birthday in 2006. In earlier work, Dr Bailey had transplanted a young baboon's heart into Baby Fae (26 Oct 1984).
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