Giant miracle for tiny infant
Published: January 29, 2005
Baby Jordan gets new heart, chance for life.
Beating dire odds, an infant boy who teetered on the brink of death for a week has received the gift of life - a miracle heart transplant that arrived in the nick of time.
Brave little Jordan Trimarchi, who was born with a golf ball-size tumor blocking his left ventricle, wasn’t expected to survive the week without a new organ.
So his parents, Brooklyn lawyers Jeff and Sadaf Trimarchi, were racked with fear when their cell phone rang while they were on the West Side Highway Wednesday afternoon.
“What’s wrong?” Jordan’s mom quickly asked cardiologist Dr. Jacqueline Lamour.
The answer was the only one she could bear to hear.
“We have a heart,” Lamour said.
Flooded with hope and joy, Sadaf looked over at Jeff, who had gone pale with worry, and started yelling. “You have a heart! You have a heart!” she shouted.
“I was screaming and thanking God,” she said. “Short of Jordan’s birth, I think that was the most incredible moment of my life.”
Within hours, Jordan was in the operating room of Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at New York-Presbyterian, where top surgeon Dr. Jan Quaegebeur performed the delicate transplant.
The new heart, which came from an anonymous infant donor who wasn’t as lucky as Jordan, was working well yesterday, pumping blood through his tiny body.
Doctors described his condition as “touch-and-go,” but his elated family had faith he would get through the next few days - a critical time for transplant patients.
“It’s a miracle on 165th St.,” said grandfather Naeem Parvez. “We are so grateful. Only in New York - it’s the greatest city in the world.”
Jordan was born Jan. 18, and seemed to be in perfect health. But 18 hours later, his family’s bliss turned to horror when doctors discovered a congenital defect: a rare tumor blocking the flow of oxygenated blood.
Surgeons removed the tumor last Friday, but the boy’s heart was too severely damaged to work properly.
The Trimarchis faced a terrible choice: let little Jordan die or put him on a heart-lung bypass in the hopes that a new heart would become available in the next few days.
Jordan could only be hooked up to the machine for a week before his other organs would start shutting down, so his parents mounted a public appeal for a donor heart.
With each passing day, the situation seemed more bleak - until Wednesday’s breakthrough.
The identity of the infant whose heart Jordan received is secret, although the Trimarchis said their thoughts and prayers were with the tragic tot’s family.
“To be able to give the gift of life in a time of such tragedy is such an inspiration,” Sadaf said, her voice thick with emotion.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin to thank the parents,” Jeff Trimarchi said. “Our gratitude, our eternal gratitude goes out to them. We hope to meet them someday.”
The donor baby had type AB blood, while Jordan has type B, so before the heart could be transplanted, doctors had to replace all of his blood.
The surgery started at 6:30 p.m. By 9 p.m., Quaegebeur was able to tell the Trimarchis the heart was in place and the “transfer went very smoothly.”
The medical team has no idea when Jordan will be released from the hospital.
It can’t be too soon for his mother, who has transformed a corner of their Bay Ridge apartment into a nursery. “I just can’t wait to take him home,” she said. “I’m just going to hug him and kiss him.”
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