LLUMC news- Dec. 2, 1999 TODAY

It has been 15 years since a infant known as Baby Fae made medical history at Loma Linda University Medical Center as the first newborn recipient of a cross-species heart transplant.

Baby Fae was born prematurely on October 14, 1984, with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, a lethal underdevelopment of the left side of the heart. Most babies born with this defect die shortly after birth.


	Her new heart pumping within her, Baby Fae sleeps peacefully. Aside from the stitches on her chest, she looks as pink and healthy as any other baby.

In a controversial and daring attempt to save her life, Leonard L. Bailey, MD, professor of surgery and chair, department of surgery, and his surgical team transplanted the heart of a donor baboon into Fae's chest on October 26, 12 days after her birth.

As the surgical team began warming her following surgery, Baby Fae's new heart began beating on its own without the help of any stimulating agents.

The new heart transformed Baby Fae from a sickly infant to a pink and healthy baby.

Night after night, newscasts around the world showed the baby wiggling, yawning, and "talking" to her mother on the telephone. The millions of people whose hearts Fae touched were heartbroken when she died November 15, 1984, from complications that caused her red blood cells to clump together, obstructing microcirculation throughout her body.

Just as Baby Fae's mother hoped, the baby's short life and tragic death were not in vain. A little more than one year later, an infant the world came to know as Baby Moses became the youngest person in the world to undergo successful infant-to-infant heart transplantation.

Today Baby Moses (Eddie Anguiano), is a healthy 14-year-old. Since his heart transplant, more than 340 children have also received new hearts at Loma Linda, and approximately 300 children receive heart transplants throughout the country each year.

Now, 15 years after Baby Fae's historic transplant, Dr. Bailey talks about her and how she impacted the world of cross-species transplantation (xenotransplantation).

Q: Would you say that xenotransplantation is a thing of the past or a wave of the future?

Dr. Bailey: Xenotransplantation has become an almost larger-than-life issue during the 15 years since Baby Fae. Societies have been established, journals developed and published, commissions established, and oversite agencies created both in America and abroad, particularly in England.


Eddie Anguiano, first known to the world as Baby Moses, gained notoriety as the first baby to survive an infant-to-infant heart transplant. Many people believe that without Baby Fae's experience, Eddie would not be here today. (This picture was taken in 1992.)

Millions of industrial research and development dollars have been invested in the fields of molecular biology and transgenics in an effort to create a more humanly compatible pig donor resource.

Three xenocellular protocols have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and are in progress. No solid organ protocol has been approved by Federal Government oversite committees as yet.

Because of some infectious disease concerns, the Public Health Service and the Food and Drug Administration have asked that no clinical solid organ protocols be submitted until more basic science work is done on the infectious disease issues.

To answer this question, I believe, given the nearly 60,000 people waiting for organs in the United States alone, xenotransplantation is the wave of the future.

Q: How will Loma Linda University Medical Center be involved?

Dr. Bailey: Loma Linda will reenter the field of experimental clinical xeno heart transplantation in newbornsÑa very specific niche in xenotransplantation.

The federal agencies are well aware of our work and interest, and have kept enough wiggle-room in their "white papers" to embrace our approach, once we shore up the infectious disease issues which might potentially exist in a baboon-human protocol.

We presently are engaged in a collaborative effort with the Centers for Disease Control to work out some of the infectious disease issues, but the arms of government work slowly.

Q: Do you think the world is more ready to hear about xenotransplantation now that we've had so many successful human heart transplants?

Dr. Bailey: Baby Fae cut across a host of issues that went well beyond issues of xenotransplantation. Most, if not all those issues have become well-grounded in public consciousness now. The remaining controversial piece has to do with xenotransplantation per se, and general awareness and support, while not perfect, is much greater now than ever before in history.

Q: How did your experience with Baby Fae change you personally?

Dr. Bailey: I have become much more aware of the impact of controversy on my personal life and the lives of my family members.

I have a much clearer view of the importance of public information and of the impact of notoriety in the life of a medical professional.


	Baby Fae listens to her mother's voice on the telephone. Her mother was unable to come visit her in the hospital for several days because of an illness.

I am, perhaps, less naive now than before Baby Fae, but I'm no less convinced of the fundamental correctness of our effort to help improve the survival and the possibilities of our own species, while maintaining a strong and abiding sensitivity for the many other species which co-inhabit our planet.

Q: Would you say that Baby Fae's experience helped shape the future of infant-to-infant heart transplantation here at Loma Linda?

Dr. Bailey: Baby Fae's legacy is spelled out around the world in the little lives who, in one small sense, owe their prospects and hope for a future to a baby named Fae. She helped launch the infant heart transplantation program as we know it today.

Quite a few youngsters, ranging in age from a few months to 14 years, owe Baby Fae a debt of gratitude and respect.

That there aren't hundreds more children growing up with heart transplants attests to the pressing need to push the xenotransplantation envelope even further.

Q: Baby Fae's mother asked that you not let her experience go to waste. Have you talked to her since then about the hundreds of babies who have benefited from her baby's short life?

Dr. Bailey: I have had several contacts with Baby Fae's mother over the years. She is well aware of the impact of her courage on the outcome of the many youngsters transplanted since her daughter's life and death.

She has remained very cooperative and supportive of additional research in neonatal cardiac xenotransplantation.

Q: Looking back, would you have done anything differently?

Dr. Bailey: Not really. We did our best at the time. Spending time wishing we'd done something differently is utterly unproductive and unimaginative.

We tangled with issues from which we learned a great deal. Application of that knowledge during the next clinical trials is what is important.

I'm not willing to indulge in regrets, which is not to say I wouldn't like to give Fae, at age 15, a big hug.

Loma Linda University Medical Center was one of 124 hospitals throughout the nation selected by the National Research Corporation (NRC) as one of the nation's top hospitals for heart-care services.

Of the 2,500 hospitals rated in the study, the winning 124 ranked highest in their statistical areas as most preferred providers of heart care services. The 1999 study represents more than 400,000 covered lives.

Loma Linda University Medical Center president and chief executive officer B. Lyn Behrens, MBBS (center), congratulates Kenneth R. Jutzy, MD, associate professor of medicine, and head of the division of cardiology (left), and Leonard L. Bailey, MD, professor of surgery, and chair, department of surgery, for helping to make Loma Linda University Medical Center one of the nation's top hospitals for heart-care services.

This is the fourth year the NRC has bestowed awards on hospitals, but the first time the organization has named top hospitals for specialty care services.

"The National Research Corporation elected to honor facilities most preferred for specialty care in light of the increased role consumer choice is playing in the market place," says NRC president Michael Hays.

"Consumers today share a growing concern and desire for choice in selecting their providers of specialty care.

"We hope these awards give another gauge of hospital services as an alternative to clinical report cards which are often difficult to understand by those not directly involved in the health-care industry."

Other Southern California hospitals named in the survey as top hospitals for heart care include Hoag Memorial Hospital, Santa Ana; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles; University of California Medical Center, Los Angeles; Kaiser Foundation Hospital, San Diego; and Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura, Ventura.

On November 4, Heritage Society members were treated to a luncheon in Wong Kerlee International Conference Center.

During the luncheon, special presentations were given by B. Lyn Behrens, MBBS, president of LLU and president and CEO of LLUMC; Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, dean, School of Public Health; and Reiner S. Roeske, CPA, director, LLUCH Foundation.

During his presentation, Mr. Roeske interviewed Brandon Otanjah, a Children's Hospital patient from San Bernardino.

Brandon, an 11-year-old child who has sickle cell anemia, has been admitted to Children's Hospital more than 145 times.

He is undergoing a treatment called apheraces, where physicians remove 75 percent of his blood every six weeks and replace it with 12 pints of healthy blood.

Membership in the Heritage Society is extended to anyone who includes a gift to Loma Linda University, Loma Linda University Medical Center, and/ or LLU Children's Hospital as part of his or her estate plan.

Donors who make these types of provisions do so through a bequest in their will, a trust, a gift annuity, pooled income fund participation, a life insurance policy, or other planned gift.

Heritage Society members receive Loma Linda University and Medical Center publications, a handsome certificate suitable for framing, and invitations to special recognition events.

If you or someone you know would like more information about the Heritage Society, call the office of the vice president for advancement at (909) 558-4597, or write: Heritage Society, Office of the Vice President for Advancement, Loma Linda University and Medical Center, Loma Linda, California 92350.


Across the country, Radiologic Technology Week was celebrated from November 8 to 12. LLUMC participated by holding a continental breakfast, lecture, and prize raffle for the Medical Center's 60 radiation technologists. In this photo, attendees help themselves to the continental breakfast.

In celebration of National Radiologic Technology Week, the department of radiology at Loma Linda University Medical Center held a breakfast, lecture, and prize raffle for its 60 radiation technologists on Thursday, November 11.

National Radiologic Technology Week is an annual celebration initiated by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. It is held each year the week of November 8, the day the x-ray was discovered in 1895.

The purpose of the week is to promote public awareness about the important contributions of medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals in providing quality patient care and contributing to a safer health-care environment.

Opening prayer was given by Marilyn Thunquest, MS, MBA, senior vice president, LLUMC and administrator, LLUCMC.

The guest speaker at the continental breakfast was Shirani de Alwis-Chand, EdD, director of the Teaching Learning Center. Dr. Chand gave tips on how to be successful in the workplace and in life.

"We do this every year to honor radiation technologists, who are a very hard-working, industrious group of people," says Brenda Holden, MBA, RT, administrative director of radiology. "It's just an opportunity to say thanks for all their hard work. It's a very important specialty."

Members of the Loma Linda University Medical Center marketing department recently received two awards from the New York Festivals for Public Service Education, according to Gregory B. Williams, DrPH, administrative director of the marketing department.

The Globals are presented annually to marketing departments throughout the United States in recognition of outstanding achievement in the Global International Healthcare Communications competition organized by the New York Festivals.

Displaying their award certificates are Tony Schmidt, graphic designer for the Loma Linda University Medical Center marketing department (left), and Jemellee Ambrose, director of marketing of the Loma Linda University Cancer Institute (second from left). Congratulating the two are Gregory B. Williams, DrPH, administrative director of the LLUMC marketing department (right), and Patricia Mason, assistant director of the LLUMC marketing department.

The award certificates were presented to the marketing department for organizing and implementing the "Celebration of Life '98" and "Making the Most of Me" campaigns.

Both projects were implemented on behalf of the Loma Linda University Cancer Institute.

Coordinating the two projects was Jemellee Ambrose, director of marketing for the Loma Linda University Cancer Institute.

"Making the Most of Me" was a fashion show designed to promote breast cancer awareness held October 4, 1998, in cooperation with Nordstrom, Galleria at Tyler, Riverside.

Models at the fashion show were breast cancer survivors selected from nominations submitted to the Loma Linda University Cancer Institute.

The "Celebration of Life" was held June 7, 1998, at the University Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda. "Celebration of Life" is an annual event to recognize the nation's 8 million cancer survivors, to focus attention on the issues of survivorship, and to acknowledge those professionals dedicated to cancer treatment, research, and support services.

Assisting Ms. Ambrose with the "Making the Most of Me" campaign was Tony Schmidt, graphic designer for the marketing department.

Working with Ms. Ambrose on the "Celebration of Life" project was Wendy Miller, a graphic designer from San Bernardino.

Costume designer visits LLUMC Adult Day Services
	Kristen Willet recently visited with the clients of LLUMC's Adult Day Services. Ms. Willet, a hat designer, creates beaded heirlooms, delicate beaded flower headpieces for brides, and custom traditional and contemporary headpieces. Not only did she display her headpieces, she also sat down at her sewing machine and made one of her custom designs as a demonstration for ADS participants.

	Ms. Willet has designed headpieces for Las Vegas showgirls, the Rockettes, and Janet Jackson's "The Velvet Rope Tour," to name a few. Here, Ms. Willet, along with Adult Day Services staff and participants, model hats handcrafted by her company, Kristen Anne Designs of Los Angeles.