Heart transplant saves Alaska infant with heterotaxy syndrome who had a cardiac arrest

The heart is located on the left side of the body, but in the case of Lincoln Seay of Anchorage, Alaska, his heart was on the right side. A heart transplant saved the life of the seven-month old infant.

The heart transplant was necessary because Baby Lincoln suffered from cardiac arrest. Because of the rare heart condition, called heterotaxy syndrome, he needed multiple surgeries to keep the heart vital. Four days after Lincoln’s cardiac arrest, he was flown to Seattle and waited for 89 days for the transplant.

On the scheduled date of surgery, the infant’s heart stopped a second time, causing another cardiac arrest that doctors had to place him on the heart bypass machine supposed to be used during the transplant.

What normally takes two hours to hook a person to a bypass machine took the surgeons from the Seattle Children’s Hospital only 12 minutes, including performing CPR, shares Dr Michael McMullen, surgical director of heart transplantation at the hospital and Lincoln’s personal surgeon, reports ABC News.

The lucky boy is now recovering. Mindy Seay, his mother, says her son’s color is pink and vibrant. “We joked, ‘He woke up thinking he was the Hulk.’” An anonymous donor family provided Lincoln’s heart.

Mindy, in an open letter she posted as a blog, writes, “I will treasure that heart more than I’ve ever treasured any gift … will be sure we always give reverence and respect to the child and the family from which it came,” quotes Seattle Times.

According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the rare congenital defect often involves the heart, with the defect of varying types and severity. Children with the syndrome could also have other organs, such as the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines, in abnormal places in the abdomen and chest area.