But the operation was a success and he is now a healthy, happy, three-year old. He's got this zest for life that you wouldn't believe. In the medical literature, there are only eight reported cases in which adults were given a heart transplant from a donor of a different blood type. All were errors. Despite urgent action, including retransplantation, only two of the patients survived.
Babies develop antibodies to other blood types at around six months old.
And even then, those antibodies remain weak for some time, rising to adult levels over the course of about the next year. Getting permission to test her theory from the hospital's ethics committee might have been more difficult but for the fact these infants would have died otherwise. There were no blood-type compatible hearts to give them. While West is certain the procedure is safe for a new-born, she admitted that using it on a child as old as Seth was a risk, taken because he could wait no longer. The hospital figured the incompatible heart might be temporary, a move to buy Seth time until a compatible donor heart was found.