The world’s first baby heart transplant recipient celebrated his 40th birthday with his care team at Loma Linda University Hospital on Wednesday.
His name is Eddie Anguiano, but he’s also known as “Baby Moses.” Anguiano celebrated this milestone with the Loma Linda University Medical Center doctors and nurses who made history on Nov. 20, 1985 when they successfully transplanted an infant heart into him when he was just four days old.
His mom, Maria Aguirre, told KNX News’ Karen Adams how Anguiano was born with the same congenital heart defect that took the life of her baby girl the year before.
“The only hope was a transplant, and Dr. [Leonard] Bailey at the time wasn't ready to do a transplant because he didn't have all the information he needed to make it successful,” Aguirre said.
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Bailey made history a year before “Baby Moses,” when the pediatric surgeon transplanted a baboon's heart into an infant known as Baby Fae. She only lived 21 days after the transplant, but it paved the way for Anguiano’s human-to-human infant heart transplant.
Since Eddie's historic surgery, 570 pediatric heart transplants have been performed at Loma Linda University Health.
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