Youngest organ transplantIn 1987, Paul Holc became the youngest person in the world known to have an organ transplant of any kind when he received a new heart at just three hours old. The heart transplant was performed by surgeons at Loma Linda University Medical Center. At birth, the baby weighed 6 pounds 6¾ ounces, and suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fatal heart defect in which the heart's left chamber is missing or atrophied. He was delivered early* by Caesarian section because a donor heart became available from a brain-dead baby in Canada. By the time he celebrated his 10th birthday, hundreds of similar transplants had been performed at Loma Linda.«[Image: Paul Holc, age 10, points to a photograph of himself as an infant.] |
