The State : Infant Given Donor Heart

Loma Linda University Medical Center doctors successfully completed heart transplant surgery on a baby born with a fatal heart defect, the 23rd infant to undergo the operation at the hospital. Whitney Ray Petersen, born at the medical center 2 1/2 weeks ago, was in critical condition after the 4 1/2-hour operation, hospital spokeswoman Anita Rockwell said. The infant was diagnosed before birth with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a lethal deformity of the heart, and was placed on Loma Linda’s heart transplant list Sept. 21. “We are so grateful that somebody saw through their pain and donated a heart from their baby and saved our baby,” said the infant’s father, Daymon Petersen, 31, a maintenance worker for the state of Utah. Of the infants under 6 months of age who have undergone the heart transplant surgery at Loma Linda, 19 have survived the operation.