Miracle baby doing great after heart transplant
Published: April 26, 2006
A Winnipeg baby, who was one of the youngest infants in Canada to undergo a heart transplant, is doing well, and now weighs 13 pounds.
Xander Dolski is showing no signs of rejection and is growing at a healthy pace, doctors say.
Dubbed the “miracle baby” by many, Xander sleeps through the night and is very attentive, his parents Walter Dolski and Jennifer Martens told CTV’s Canada AM.
Xander underwent the major surgical procedure just hours after his birth on Dec. 19 on the recommendation of doctors who detected a potentially fatal heart defect during a routine ultrasound.
Doctors in Winnipeg felt the operation was the only option to combat the lack of blood pumping out of Xander’s heart, which was causing problems for the heart chamber.
When Jennifer got the call at 1:30 a.m. that a heart had become available, she admitted she was scared.
“It was terrifying, I was overwhelmed. I was incredibly excited because it meant our son would live, but it was terrifying,” she said.
Xander was 37 weeks old and weighed six pounds when he was delivered by caesarean section at Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.
Jennifer couldn’t hold Xander before he was taken away for the operation, but she spent a few moments with him and kissed him on the forehead.
Xander had his new heart after eight hours of surgery. If a new heart hadn’t become available, he would have only lived a few hours outside the womb, doctors said.
Xander’s father always believed that the doctors would help his son.
“We never thought it wouldn’t be OK. We always thought it would be. We had a lot of faith in the doctors here and there,” Walter said.
“It’s always in the back of your mind that you didn’t know what you’d be planning for the future, but you sort of deal with it as it comes along.”
Xander’s parents kept a diary after the birth. Their entry on Jan. 6 describes the first time they were able to hold their son. Three days later, Xander’s last IV was taken out and he drank from a bottle for the first time.
Xander’s family doctor in Winnipeg, Dr. Reena Soni, says his recovery is amazing and on schedule.
“To look at him, you’d have no idea there was anything wrong with him, short of the scar on his chest,” she said.
“That transplanted heart is working beautifully. There’s no signs of rejection. He’s really down amazingly well at this point.”
Xander, however, takes more than a dozen types of medicine daily and he will need regular checkups for the rest of his life. He may also need a new heart later in life.
“He will always have to be careful as far as not exposing himself a lot of scenarios where there’s a lot of infections because his own immune system is suppressed to keep his body from rejecting the heart,” Soni said.
“But, the hope would be he could do all the regular, normal, daily fun things that all kids like to do and his parents want him to do.”
Jennifer and Walter say they want Xander to have siblings, and they are not concerned with future pregnancies.
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