posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:26 PM
When doctors in Southern California gave tiny Jerrick De Leon parents no option to fix the heart defect in thier premature son, his parents authorized
a medical transport to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. On February 6th surgeon Dr. V. Mohan Reddy performed open heart surgery on a
heart that is the size of a grape. This represents the smallest patient to ever undergo this procedure. Jerrick is doing well following the surgery
and his parents hope to have him returned to a hospital in Southern California soon.
www.cnn.com
(CNN) -- The pediatric surgeon who performed open-heart surgery on a one-week-old baby with a heart the size of a grape said Thursday it was "a
wonderful feeling" to be able to save his life.
Surgeons at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital believe that Jerrick De Leon, born more than 13 weeks early, is the smallest baby
ever to survive an open-heart procedure called an arterial switch.
The hospital said Jerrick is expected to have a normal life, barring any medical complications from his premature bi
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This is the hospital I work at and the Cardiac Unit is one of the two that I am based out of as a pediatric critical care transport nurse. I have
worked with Mohan the surgeon for over 10 years now in two different hospitals, and I would not hesitate to have him perform surgery on my son if it
was needed. Normal heart size is about the size of your fist. Imagine how small that is and to work int hat area and have the kid survive the OR let
alone the post op course speaks volumes of his surgical skill.