CMR

Mayo Clinic Replaces Heart For Second Time In 20 Month Old Boy

St. Paul, MN- A medical first was performed at the famous Mayo Clinic last week on a 20-month-old infant boy.

After the failure of an initial heart transplant that appeared at first to be successful, a second heart was successfully transplanted into the infant boy.

Kobe Giesen, of Fargo ND, received a second heart less than a week after getting his first donor heart which failed after being transplanted.

Surgeons worked very hard to rush and transplant a second heart into the tiny little boy, giving him a third chance at life.

Kobe Giesen was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy when he was three months old, and his heart swiftly grew weak and enlarged.

He was immediately placed on the transplant list and then given a heart transplant.

Normally it is rare for a tiny heart to become available, much less two hearts become available in a short span of time.

The first heart had been from a little boy in Texas that died from child abuse, and during the attempt to rescue him, the heart had been become damaged, and it only functioned 50 percent.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic transplanted the first heart into Kobe and the prognosis was good, and at first the heart seemed to be functioning well.

But then it went south fast, and it began to be rejected. Doctors rushed Kobe back into surgery where a second heart transplant with another, new donated infant heart was performed.

The first transplanted heart was damaged and it was known when it was transplanted, but because tiny hearts are so rare, the parents of Kobe went ahead with full knowledge and consent.

After the first heart failed, another, fully healthy tiny heart had become available so the second operation was performed, and this time it appears to be successful.