Heart transplant puts Liam back in the swing of things
On Christmas Day 2005, Liam received the best possible gift
– the gift of life. On that unforgettable day, surgeons at Children's Memorial Hospital successfully performed a heart
transplant on
the boy, whose enlarged
heart was failing. Liam's story drew widespread media attention, and he received
dozens of cards, letters and gifts from well-wishers all over the world.
Today, Liam is spending his summer days like many other 10-year-old boys,
tossing a baseball around with friends, playing with his brothers, Andrew, 15,
and Aidan, 8, and checking out the latest video games.
Since 1988, surgeons in Children's Memorial's Siragusa Transplantation Center
have performed nearly 120 heart
transplants on infants and children. The center offers world-renown specialists
and the latest technologies for comprehensive care in pediatric transplants.
The success rate for children undergoing heart transplants at the hospital
continues to improve: today 70 percent of patients survive five or more years
after their transplants.
In many ways, Liam was fortunate. He received a new heart after only a
few weeks on the waiting list. Some patients wait months or even years; others
may die before an organ becomes available.
A Failing Heart
Liam has struggled with health issues most of his life.
He was diagnosed with asthma
at age 2, has a number of environmental allergies and is allergic to
nuts. In an indirect way, those allergies saved his life.
A few weeks before Thanksgiving, Liam began to experience
persistent cold symptoms. Eventually he became lethargic and stopped eating and
drinking. His allergist suspected something more than a cold, and referred his
parents, Mark and Lynn, to a local hospital's emergency room, where tests
indicated Liam had an enlarged heart that was failing. After a brief stay at
another area hospital, he was transferred to Children's Memorial, a leader in pediatric heart transplants since
1988.
“When we were told that he needed a heart transplant, we were stunned,”
says his father, Mark. “We looked at each other and cried. But then we said,
okay, what do we need to do next?”
Just before Christmas, Liam's condition worsened. At one point, he collapsed
in bed and went into cardiac arrest. “I watched his doctors and nurses save his
life,” says Mark. “It took about 13 minutes for them to get him back. Finally, I
heard someone shout, ‘We've got a pulse!'”