LEGACY, my first of 20 books on the heritage of Loma Linda University Health, saved Daniel Vacarro’s life. It was initially published in 1978. Pastor George Vandeman purchased 17,000 copies to give away on his television program, “It Is Written.” Several years later, he called me and asked if the book had been updated. He was producing a three-part series, which included LLUMC, and wanted to give the book away again. When I told him about our new infant heart transplant program and proton treatment center, he decided to make them into a fourth and fifth program in the series. And he purchased another 17,000 copies of the newest, 1990 edition, which included both subjects in a major update.
In the meantime, Chris and Kim Vacarro had been told that their unborn son had an undeveloped heart and that without intervention he would die shortly after birth. Arrangements already had been made for the couple to visit San Francisco to consider surgery for their baby boy. Daniel’s condition, hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, would require three to four open-heart surgeries.
As the Vacarros were driving to Santa Barbara, California, for the 1994, 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 latest 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 on October 26, 1994, the 10th anniversary of Baby Fae’s historic surgery. He was only 11 days old.
Daniel Vacarro is now 22 years old, and according to his mother, has not experienced even one rejection episode. He returns to LLUMC for periodic checkups.
To date, 337 babies under one year of age have undergone heart transplantation in Loma Linda, a delicate surgery pioneered by Dr. Leonard L. Bailey, with hearts that weigh about one ounce. All would have died without the surgery.
The first one, “Baby Moses,” was transplanted at four days of age on November 20, 1985. He may now be the world’s longest–living recipient of a heart transplant. The first baby girl, “Baby Eve,” transplanted in January 1986, at 17 days of age, is now the mother of her own son. The youngest person in history to receive a successful organ transplant of any kind was Baby Paul Holc (dubbed by the news media as “The Incredible Holc”) transplanted on October 16, 1987 at the age of 3 hours.
And LEGACY, now in its sixth printing, has become a textbook for seven classes in the Loma Linda University School of Religion. Hopefully, it will inspire today’s University students to continue the institution’s incredible legacy around the world.