six month old baby lives - miracle for sure

[strandinthewind]

Pioneering surgery saves baby born 3 months early
Doctors fix flaw in Jerrick De Leon's grape-size heart

(CNN) -- The pediatric surgeon who performed open-heart surgery on a one-week-old baby with a heart the size of a grape said Thursday it was "a wonderful feeling" to be able to save his life.

Surgeons at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital believe that Jerrick De Leon, born more than 13 weeks early, is the smallest baby ever to survive an open-heart procedure called an arterial switch.

The hospital said Jerrick is expected to have a normal life, barring any medical complications from his premature birth.

It said he will be placed on antibiotics as a precaution.

At the time of his operation, on February 6, Jerrick weighed just over 1.5 pounds (700 grams), said his surgeon, Dr. V. Mohan Reddy. Reddy, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery and a professor at Stanford's medical school, specializes in performing surgery on extremely small infants.

Reddy said he knew he could repair the type of heart defect the baby had, but "the complicating fact was the baby was too small and very, very premature."

Still, Reddy said he was "very confident I would be able to take care of this baby."

Jerrick was airlifted to the hospital from southern California on February 4.

His mother, Maria Lourdes De Leon, a pediatric physician herself, said Jerrick's doctors had given him no chance of survival.

"It was very difficult. I was surrendering to whatever comes," she told reporters at a news conference with Reddy.

Lourdes said she felt an enormous relief when the operation was deemed successful.

"There have been ups and downs, but he's a feisty little one. He's very strong," she said.

Lourdes told CNN on Thursday that she was "the luckiest mother around to be able to find someone like Dr. Reddy who was able to do the heart surgery for my baby."

The surgery involved switching two arteries that route blood out of the heart: the aorta and the pulmonary artery.

When Jerrick was born, his heart was sending oxygenated blood back and forth between the heart and the lungs, depriving his body of oxygen-rich blood.

In diameter, the arteries were the size of the tip of a pencil, Reddy said, and the aorta was 3 millimeters, or about one-eighth of an inch, long. His chest was the length of the doctor's finger.

Reddy said he took the case after receiving a call from a cardiac surgeon in Los Angeles.

He said he told the doctor the risk was very high, but he felt the Stanford hospital had the most experience.

The hospital has been doing similar surgeries for 12 years, and its surgeons have performed more than 150 in children weighing under about 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms), Reddy said.

The most serious complicating factors were the baby's premature birth and his size, Reddy said. During surgery, "We have to really be very gentle and careful. Everything you do has to be very scaled down and meticulous."

Jerrick's surgery took two and a half hours. The entire procedure, including preparation, lasted six.

Doctors said he is expected to remain in the hospital for six to eight more weeks, until he is about 30 weeks old.

At that time, Jerrick may be well enough to be transferred to a hospital in Southern California.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/02/17...ery/index.html

[gldstwmn]

And this is news, why?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

And this is news, why?

Surgeons at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital believe that Jerrick De Leon, born more than 13 weeks early, is the smallest baby ever to survive an open-heart procedure called an arterial switch.

Her heart was the size of a grape - that is AMAZING to me

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

And this is news, why?

Oh yea, no posting of miracles here. Don't we know that? Any sign that there is a higher being is just unacceptable. We can't thwart liberal’s belief that they are gods!

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Her heart was the size of a grape - that is AMAZING to me

Amazing to me to, but then again we actually appear to have hearts.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Her heart was the size of a grape - that is AMAZING to me

And how do you think this information is going to be used?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

And how do you think this information is going to be used?

I was posting it to show how far the miracles of medical science have come and to say I was happy for this kid. I do not care how anyones uses it. If you are implying it has some application to Roe - it does not. She was 13 weeks premature which is a far cry from the end of the first trimester Thus, I was not posting for that

[WildInTheWind]

I think it is an awsome story!!!! Truely amazing what can be done and that this baby will probably lead a normal life after having his tiny heart operated on.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I was posting it to show how far the miracles of medical science have come and to say I was happy for this kid. I do not care how anyones uses it. If you are implying it has some application to Roe - it does not. She was 13 weeks premature which is a far cry from the end of the first trimester Thus, I was not posting for that

We've been able to sustain life outside the womb at six months for quite some time now.
Of course it has implications to Roe. Otherwise they wouldn't ****ing report it.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

We've been able to sustain life outside the womb at six months for quite some time now.
Of course it has implications to Roe. Otherwise they wouldn't ****ing report it.

I know we have. That is why I did not think Roe was applicable, etc.

They operated on the heart. That is the reason. This was the first surgery of that type where the infant survived according to the article. That is why I posted it - that is the medical miracle I and they were talking about. I think that we can do that is huge and provides hope for the future If this was my baby - I would be happy

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Lux

Perhaps I'm just too logical but in the case of successful surgery, I tend to acknowledge the accomplishment of modern science and the surgeons themselves, not some 'God'. I mean, if I'd just performed such a thing I'd hope people would acknowledge me instead of giving this thing credit in yet another case.

I think it is possible that it is both in the sense that God provided man with a brain and that brain caused this. But, I know not everyone does not believe in God

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by Lux

Perhaps I'm just too logical but in the case of successful surgery, I tend to acknowledge the accomplishment of modern science and the surgeons themselves, not some 'God'. I mean, if I'd just performed such a thing I'd hope people would acknowledge me instead of giving this thing credit in yet another case.

Credit is do to me and only me!

Yep...sounds like a liberal.

[Miss Vicky]

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

Credit is do to me and only me!

Yep...sounds like a liberal.

How about sounds like someone who doesn't believe one's personal/religious beliefs should be imposed on everybody else? If the surgeon did the surgery and it was a success, then the surgeon deserves the credit for it. Try applying logic instead of theology to things sometime.
And stop making everything a case of liberal vs. conservative. It gets very tiresome and you end up looking like a fool every time.

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

How about sounds like someone who doesn't believe one's personal/religious beliefs should be imposed on everybody else? If the surgeon did the surgery and it was a success, then the surgeon deserves the credit for it. Try applying logic instead of theology to things sometime.
And stop making everything a case of liberal vs. conservative. It gets very tiresome and you end up looking like a fool every time.

I never said that the surgeon shouldn't get credit, of course he should!

And ultimately dear, everything comes down to liberals vs. conservatives, it's the one constant right now in this country. Conservatives believe we were created in the image of God, liberals believe that they are god!

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by Lux

Perhaps we should give credit to Buddha aswell.

Bleh, you're not worth it.

Buddah, Yaheweh, Jehova, etc...

All manifestations of God.

Techinically we all worship the same God (now what we believe of that God maybe different, but still one God).