Canada : "Baby heart transplant drama continues to unfold in Toronto hospital"

"Kaylee Wallace, just two months old, who was expected to donate her heart to Lillian O'Connor. Doctors on Tuesday night told Crystal Vitelli and Jason Wallace, Kaylee parents, that their daughter was no longer a candidate to donate her heart after she was taken off life support and it continued to beat, never dropping below 130 beats per minute.

Jason Wallace could not help but rejoice on Wednesday in the resilience of his two-month-old baby, Kaylee, who defied doctors' expectations by surviving after her life support was removed a day earlier.

But in a case that has captured international attention and raised questions about the ethics of selective organ donation, Wallace remained committed to giving the infant's heart to another needy baby, one-month-old Lillian, as Kaylee's death loomed large.

'It's a roller-coaster I wouldn't want anybody to be on, yet joyful that she's still here,' Wallace told a throng of reporters waiting outside Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children for updates on Wednesday night.

Wallace and his wife, Crystal Vitelli, along with Lillian's parents, Kevin O'Connor and Melanie Bernard of P.E.I., were on tenterhooks all day as they awaited word on their infants' intertwined fates.

The two sets of parents initially met at the hospital and quickly bonded, with Kaylee's parents deciding they wanted Lillian, who was in immediate need of a new heart, to have their baby's heart once she was taken off life support.

But when her respirator was removed Tuesday, Kaylee surprised doctors by soldiering on.

She maintained a strong heartbeat and was breathing on her own, which she continued to do on Wednesday.

Still, the prognosis seemed bleak for the two-month-old, who was born with an incurable brain malformation called Joubert Syndrome that affects her ability to breathe.

'I still maintain the position that if she's going to pass, we need to take the heart,' Wallace said, noting the hospital would remain 'on alert' and ready to move forward with the transplant operation should the infant's condition deteriorate.

Kaylee's heart was not damaged throughout the ordeal, but it would need to be reassessed prior to transplantation, Wallace said.

'It's not Kaylee's time at this moment, and she will decide when the time comes,' he added.

Kaylee's parents were set to meet with doctors again on Thursday for a progress report.


Because of Kaylee's condition, doctors believed she would die after her respirator was removed, but her unexpected survival has thrown into question both her own prognosis and the fate of little Lillian, who has a congenital heart defect and is in desperate need of a new organ.

Jim Wright, the hospital's chief of surgery, explained there are varying degrees of severity for Kaylee's brain condition, and doctors had thought the worst.

'It was believed that Kaylee had the more serious kind and would not be expected to breathe on her own, but we have removed the breathing support and she is breathing on her own,' Wright said.


The infant was still expected to die, Wallace said, but it was uncertain when that may happen. Medical staff at the Hospital for Sick Children said both infants remained stable on Wednesday.

'Our sadness is that the situation is not resolved for both families, and our focus now is on the families and their emotional and physical needs,' the hospital said in a statement.

The publicity surrounding the operation was unusual, with both sets of parents inviting media attention and providing a rare glimpse inside an emotional life-or-death process.

As well, because the hospital eventually agreed to allow Lillian to be the transplant recipient, the case sparked considerable speculation that officials bent to public pressure — an assertion that medical officials vehemently denied."

By Michael McKiernan and Megan O'Toole, National Post, April
With files from Canwest News Service.
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