It started with the gift of one heart and ended with three transformed lives.
Physicians at Newyork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley hospital performed an extremely rare series of surgeries on July that changed the lives of three children forever.
A heart of a deceased donor was transplanted to Hend Almesafri, ten years old, who then paid him by providing his lung valve to John Catholiato, 2, and his aortic valve to Teddy Carter.
Now prospering, the three children gathered at the hospital in February, where Hend surprised their “choirs” with gifts and a time when their families will never forget.
“You see these children interact and you know that people are good,” John’s mother, Joanne Dowling, told The Post.
“We can never get to a gift for her, what could you buy from someone who gave your child the gift of life?”
John’s heart disease
Dowling was 24 weeks pregnant when he learned that his son did not have Truncus arteriosus, a disease in which instead of having two heart trips, one that went to the body and one that went to the lungs, he had only one and a hole in his heart.
She and her husband, Thomas Catoliato, were immediately derived from Newyork-Presbyterian.
“This is our first child together, and he only took a drastic turn; he felt that everything was coming from that moment,” said Joanne.
“I don’t even know, apart from your pregnancy, it is no longer your pregnancy. You are only afraid from that moment on. But the team did it to be very perfect.”
Never considered to end.
“I loved [John] From the minute I found out he was pregnant with him, “he said.” I knew Newyork-Presbyterian doctors could fix it. If someone could fix it, they would be. ”
He had an open heart surgery when he was only 5 days old, and while it was good, it was difficult to accept that he should continue to have surgeries all his life: the artificial valve would not grow.
So when they found out about the possibility of a heart transplant, they were hopeful.
“It’s almost as if there was a light at the end of the tunnel,” Dowling said. “It’s a comfort for us to know that John may never need it [another] Open heart surgery: We may never have to deliver our child to a surgeon. “”
In July he was catching a cup of coffee in the afternoon when he received the call: they had a game. Hend would get his own new choir, but he gave the perfectly usable lung valve of his old one.
Things moved quickly after that. Catoliato went home on a trip to the beach and was on the phone with Dr. Andrew Goldstone, a surgical director of Pediatric Choir Transplantation in Newyork-Presbyterian, to discuss the procedure that night.
It was a degree of professionalism, kindness, consistency and communication that had maintained their spirit since they learned of John’s condition.
“They were like,” this is what we do to make a living, right? This is what we are going to work every day to do it. “So they retained us.
At 5 a.m., they came to the hospital, being scared and confused, but they knew that they and John – were in good hands.
“It was so sunny that day, and John was in the pajamas, and I only looked at him and thought” friend, you don’t even know it. “He had no idea,” he recalled, with tears. And [the hospital staff] It was so kind. “
Although John was only 18 months old at the time, Dowling said that the doctors “did not make him a traumatizing at all to take it away” because “they made it fun for John, as if he were about to take a little walk.
“Newyork-Presbyterian was so prepared at all levels, from general intake to ER to incorporating it into gold,” said Cathy. “It was almost as if everyone had a team of 50 people for five hours, [so that] Every step, every door that opened, each transition was perfect. “
After the transplant, they kept in contact with John and Katie Carter: the parents of the other recipient, Teddy.
“We call them heart brothers,” said Dowling. “John has one side and Teddy has the other.”
TEDDY Surgery Savings Transplantation
Teddy was 2 months old when he was diagnosed with a heart defect called aortic stenosis, which can block or restrict blood flow to the heart.
“We were totally surprised,” her mother, Katie, told The Post.
“It was really scary to have a child who needed a fairly immediate open heart surgery, that is, something that no father wants to happen. But we only had faith that we had amazing doctors in Newyork-Presbyterian and we were lucky enough to live in New York and have access to such incredible care.,
Despite multiple procedures, TEDDY would have needed several more open heart surgeries before reaching adulthood, if it were not for this heart transplant.
Two young children, a heart donation
This type of surgery, in which a donor’s heart is used to benefit several receptors, is called the heart transplant of Domino Root-Root and is quite strange.
“A partial heart transplant divided is extremely rare and only a good number of times has been performed, and until this operation, never in the northeast,” Goldstone told The Post.
“We are positioned exclusively for domino transplants and root dominos due to surgical and team experience in all aspects of diseases and cardiovascular transplantation, and the resources needed to make a reality.”
On the day of the procedures, Dr. David Kalfa and his team started Hend’s surgery at 8 am. Once his old choir was removed, the lung valve was delivered to Dr. Goldstone, who immediately entered the next room to start operating John.
When Dr. Kalfa finished the Hend’s transplant in the afternoon, his team moved to Teddy, whose surgery, the last one finished, ended at 4 a.m.
The three recipients went well and gathered at the hospital in February: an experience that Dowling described as “surrealist” and “humble”.
“You see this girl and she has gift bags; she bought them gifts,” said Dowling. “I thought,” My God, we didn’t get it. “But what can you give to someone who gave your child a choice to live?”
“It was really special to spend some time together,” Katie Carter said.
And if you believe that children are too young to really understand what was happening, according to Teddy’s father, they seem to understand more than you expected.
“We were in the car leading to [Teddy’s] He quotes the other day and said, “My heart was broken and is now fixed,” his father said.
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