Infant With Heart Defect Undergoes Transplant

A 5 1/2-month-old Orange boy suffering from a life-threatening heart defect underwent a successful heart transplant early Saturday at Loma Linda University Medical Center, hospital officials reported.

Matthew Matsumiya--who was born April 22 with cardiomyopathy, a general deterioration of the heart--was listed in critical condition in Loma Linda’s intensive-care unit after a five-hour operation that ended at noon. Loma Linda spokeswoman Anita Rockwell said it is normal for a patient to be listed in critical condition after a heart transplant.

The baby’s parents, Graham and Cheryl Matsumiya, both 25, were present throughout the operation and were reported to be with the baby late Saturday. They could not be reached for comment.

The transplant was performed by a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Leonard Bailey. As is longstanding hospital policy, the identity of the heart donor was not revealed. Loma Linda has performed 21 heart transplants on infants younger than 6 months; of those, 17--including Matthew--are alive.

Matthew had been on a waiting list for a new heart since May 31. Since then, the infant’s condition had deteriorated so much that he had to be on life-support equipment for the past month at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, said a hospital spokeswoman there.

Four other babies are on Loma Linda’s heart transplant list, including month-old Paige Watts of Costa Mesa. The baby, daughter of Bruce and Peggy Watts, suffers from a rare, inoperable combination of three heart defects and will die soon if a donor heart is not found, her doctors have said.

Peggy Watts said late Saturday that she, too, was elated for Matthew and his family.

“That’s beautiful,” she said.

Paige, meanwhile, remains under watch at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, where she was born. Her mother said the baby “is holding her own” and is listed in stable condition.

“As long as that keeps up, it makes it that much easier” to wait, Peggy Watts said. “But if she starts to regress, that will make it tough.”

Peggy Watts, 27, a housewife, and her husband, 30, a maintenance worker, wear beepers to notify them when a heart is available.

“We’re just waiting for the beeper to go off,” Peggy Watts said.

The babies on the transplant list at Loma Linda are not waiting in any particular order. Peggy Watts noted that all have different blood types and, therefore, require different types of hearts. Paige needs a heart with blood type A-positive.

Doctors at Loma Linda, however, say that a shortage of baby heart donors is causing extensive delays in getting the transplants. As a result, Bailey is scheduled to appear at a press conference this morning at Loma Linda Medical Center to alert the public to the need for more donors.

Nationally, 12 babies are reported in need of heart transplants.