Edition: U.S. / Global

Infant Boy Survives Heart Peril

Published: October 9, 1990

An infant who had a usually fatal heart defect healed by himself, amazing doctors who thought a transplant was the only way to save his life.

The parents of the nine-week-old boy, Weston Wells Kilpatrick, will be able to take him home this week, said officials at Loma Linda University Medical Center. The parents begged today for donor hearts to save the lives of other dying infants.

Dr. Steven Gundry, a pioneer in infant heart transplant surgery, said it was unlikely that their child would ever need a transplant.

Believed to Be Unprecedented

''It's the first time we've seen it,'' Dr. Gundry said on Saturday, adding that he believed the healed birth defect was unprecedented in medical history.

The baby, born in Santa Maria on July 27, is alive only because of ''our prayers and the prayers of others and perhaps some medical phenomenon,'' said his father, Layne Kilpatrick, at a news conference today at the university.

''I think this child has an incredible will to live,'' he said of his son's spontaneous recovery from three of five heart defects. ''It's miraculous,'' It hasn't been seen before.''

The baby, who was born July 27, was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center when he was four days old, after doctors concluded that he had hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

The boy's damaged heart grew stronger as he waited for a heart transplant donor, Dr. Gundry said.

Center Known for Transplants

The parents, Layne and Janet Kilpatrick, a pharmacist and a dietitian, both 31 years old, had moved from Lompoc to Redlands to be near the medical center, which is known for advances in child heart transplants.

Doctors determined that Weston's heart had three abnormalities that would normally have killed a baby within two weeks if left untreated, Dr. Gundry said.

He had an abnormal mitral valve, which regulates the flow of blood through the heart; an abnormally small left ventricle, the pumping chamber of the left side of the heart; and a constricted aorta, the main artery that carries blood through the body.

As the family waited for a heart donor, doctors treated Weston with a drug that kept open a heart blood vessel that normally shuts down after birth.

A few weeks ago, doctors noticed that the baby's left ventricle had grown considerably and was gradually becoming functional.

''Theoretically, we knew the left ventricle might be able to grow, because we know the right ventricle can grow if you keep the blood flowing, but to our knowledge it has never been reported for the left ventricle,'' Dr. Gundry said.

Surgery was performed Friday to correct two other defects, but Weston no longer requires a heart transplant to save his life, Dr. Bailey said.

The Kilpatricks said other newborns with deadly congenital heart defects will die unless parents of babies killed in car wrecks or other accidents agree to donate their dead children's hearts.

About 100 babies in the United States die each day because the demand for newborn heart donors far outstrips the supply, said Dr. Bailey, who transplanted a baboon's heart into a girl known as Baby Fae in 1984 in a futile and widely criticized attempt to save that newborn's life.

Since the Baby Fae transplant, Loma Linda has become a leading center for using heart transplants to save babies born with fatal cardiac defects. Of 73 infants who have received transplanted hearts there, 55 are still alive.

Wait for Donor Hearts Grows

Dr. Bailey said about 20 hospitals across the nation now perform infant heart transplants, but the wait for donor hearts has increased from three weeks to five weeks as demand for the surgery grew.

''It's such a terrible waste that these children and these babies have to die when these gentlemen have proven they can save their lives'' with infant-to-infant transplants, Layne Kilpatrick said.

Baby Fae was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fatal underdevelopment of the heart's left pumping chamber. Weston Kilpatrick was born with a similar but less severe defect, along with underdeveloped mitral and aortic heart valves, a narrowed aorta and an open duct between two arteries, Bailey said.

After being transferred to Loma Linda, Weston remained for weeks on a waiting list for donor hearts. When doctors performed ultrasound tests on his heart about 10 days ago, they were amazed to find spontaneous and unprecedented development of the left side of the heart and the two valves.

''We have never seen this phenomenon,'' said Dr. Jorge McCormack, a pediatric cardiologist.

Dr. Bailey said Weston's heart had ''developed to a nearly normal architecture. ''

Weston's abnormally narrowed aorta - the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the body - was repaired Friday by Dr. Gundry.

The operation also closed the open duct between two key coronary arteries. The duct normally closes by itself after birth.