Heritage Snapshot: Part 79

The book “LEGACY: Daring to Care: The Heritage of Loma Linda University Medical Center” helped to save Daniel Vacarro’s life. Chris and Kim Vacarro had been told that their unborn son had an undeveloped heart and that he would die shortly after birth, without intervention. Arrangements already had been made for the couple to visit San Francisco to consider surgery for their baby. Daniel’s condition would require three to four open-heart surgeries. As the Vacarros were driving to Santa Barbara, California, for the 4th of July weekend, Kim started reading LEGACY. A friend whose husband had been a prostate cancer patient at the Loma Linda University Medical Center Proton Treatment Center had obtained a copy of the book and wanted to share it. As Kim read she started crying softly. Chris wondered why. “We’re not going to San Francisco,” Kim announced. “We’re going to Loma Linda.” As she read aloud, the couple concluded that heart transplantation was Daniel’s only hope for a normal life. Daniel Vacarro received his new heart October 26, 1994, the 10th anniversary of Baby Fae’s historic surgery. He was only 11 days old. In March, 1990, the Loma Linda International Heart Institute conducted an international conference on pediatric heart transplantation. Heart transplant surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, general pediatricians, immunologists, transplant nurses, and related personnel attended the event. Of the 475 participants, 111 came from 24 other countries. Participants also came from around the United States, including delegations of up to eight persons from the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Duke University, Yale University, Stanford University, and several children’s hospitals. The conference was designed to foster professional growth through the collective exploration of scientific data, clinical management techniques and strategies, and relevant ethical issues. A second conference was held in March, 1995. Both conferences were detailed in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. In 1991 Anees J. Razzouk, MD, a talented 1982 graduate of the LLU School of Medicine, joined the heart transplant team. Razzouk, a protégé of Dr. Leonard Bailey, studied thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at LLUMC between 1987 and 1990. He joined the team after completing a fellowship in pediatric cardiovascular surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. He is now Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery. Loma Linda University Medical Center has made it possible for families of extremely sick babies to have reason to hope, not only in America, but also in Canada, Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, and the Far East. Unfortunately, circumstances sometimes dash hope. Hope is then replaced by compassion. In 1988 a young mother from Little Rock, Arkansas, brought her baby to Loma Linda with no funds or insurance for a possible heart transplant. The Medical Center and all participants decided to treat the baby anyway. Unfortunately, a severe infection prevented the life-saving surgery. The Medical Center chartered a private jet to fly the baby and other family members back to Little Rock so that the entire family could be together for Christmas. The baby died a few days later. The only flowers on the coffin were from the Medical Center. A note, not meant for public consumption, but gleaned from the institution’s Board minutes provides perspective: “Our ‘bottom line’ could be better if we weren’t compassionate, but there would be little hope or hope against hope at Loma Linda. We must continue to offer hope and compassion.” Loma Linda’s infant-heart-transplant program has captured the attention of the world, probably because everybody loves babies. In general, most people have an interest—maybe even a fascination—with the heart. Our human survival instincts cause us to do whatever we can to defeat death and to cheer whenever death is cheated. When six-month-old Dylan Stork flew home with his parents, Mario and Tracy, to Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada, he was met by fireworks and dozens of relatives and neighbors. He was wearing a slender gold MedicAlert bracelet, identifying him as a “Heart Transplant Patient,” and a shirt which read, “I Left My Heart in Loma Linda.”