A six-month-old baby had two surgeries simultaneously in the United Kingdom; the two most essential organs were transplanted in the baby’s body. One surgery was performed to normalize the blood supply, and another was to enhance the baby’s immunity.
The world’s first combination surgery where a new heart and an immune gland is transplanted together in the body of such a small baby was performed at the Duke University Hospital.
According to the report, the name of the child is Easton Sinnamon. The chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the hospital, Dr Joseph W. Turek, said the surgery would change the way and possibilities of solid organ transplantation.
Dr Turek asserted that the technology to perform the two surgeries was developed by Duke University itself. Easton’s heart and immune gland thymus were not healthy by birth. So, the surgery in the immune gland will make T-cells that will enhance the immunity in the baby’s body. The new heart and thymus gland was implanted last year in August.
Adding to this, Dr Turek asserted that the thymus was processed specially and uncommonly; doctors often give immunosuppressive medication in such cases so that body’s immunity may recognize the foreign organ during or immediately after the surgery.
These are very cautious and provided differently in specific stages; some of these drugs are so dangerous that their side effects last for a lifetime.
The team of doctors also planned to transplant new thymus tissue from the donor’s body along with a new heart instead of giving the child any immunosuppressive medication.
Many lives could be saved in the future. Ellen D. Kirk, chief of the department of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, said that if the child remains healthy, we can use this method to save other lives in the future.
