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A broken heart no longer; baby gets heart transplant |
After months of waiting, Newberg infant Anneke
Schippers receives a new heart in California |
By Heidi
Aubrey, Newberg Graphic intern
E-mail Heidi at
haubrey@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Little Anneke’s toes are pink and warm,
just like any normal baby’s. But for Anneke, that’s anything but
normal.
For the past four months, the Newberg infant had been awaiting a
heart transplant at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital in Southern
California.
The wait ended June 28 when a donor heart became available.
Newberg residents Mike and Rachel Schippers (pronounced skippers),
26 and 24, respectively, learned their daughter had heart problems
when Rachel was 20 weeks pregnant. Anneke was missing the left
ventricle of her heart and suffered from leaking heart valves. The
condition, called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, is one of the
most common causes of early cardiac death.
Anneke’s difficulties began as soon as her parents welcomed her
into the world at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland. The doctor
said her lungs were getting too much blood; the rest of her body,
too little. Too tired to eat on her own, Anneke was put on a feeding
tube. Her breathing was labored.
At 3-days-old, she underwent heart surgery to increase the blood
flow to her body and decrease the flow to her lungs.
But in the weeks that followed, the surgery proved insufficient.
Anneke, ashen gray and cold to the touch, needed something more.
Mike and Rachel could opt for a series of surgeries to redirect
some of the blood around Anneke’s heart to the rest of her body.
Known as the Norwood Procedure, this approach would take several
years and would leave Anneke often short of breath, unable to engage
in rigorous physical activity.
Or they could opt for a heart transplant. But Anneke would have to
remain on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of her life, making
her more susceptible to disease.
They opted for a new heart.
“Once we made that decision, it was just one of those things that
there’s no question in our mind that it was the best decision. We’re
giving her the best chance at a quality life,” Mike said in May.
A neonatal air transport team flew 15-day-old Anneke from Legacy
Emanuel Hospital to Loma Linda Children’s Hospital, where she would
wait — on and off feeding tubes and oxygen — for a new heart.
In the meantime, Rachel and her father, the Rev. John Mahaffy of
Newberg, both began posting regular Anneke updates on their Web
sites: www.caringbridge.org/or/anneke and
www.tinyurl.com/243g3.
As the months passed, interest spread. Mahaffy said he has
received calls from well-wishers from as far away as Australia.
The phone call they were all hoping for arrived at 7:40 a.m. June
28. Mike and Rachel, exhausted from a late night, thought it was the
alarm clock. Mike leaned over to turn off the alarm, but then
realized it was the hospital calling. A heart was available; surgery
was slated for that afternoon.
“The call came at 7:40 a.m. and we were at (Anneke’s) bedside at
8:15 (a.m.),” Rachel wrote on her Web site. She and Mike saw Anneke
off to the operating room at 12:45 p.m., and then it was time to do
something which the Schippers were now experts at — wait.
By 8:30 p.m. they received the final update.
“(The doctor) told us the surgery couldn’t have gone any better and
that the heart was the perfect heart for Anneke, a perfect fit,”
Rachel wrote.
The Schippers’ were allowed to see their daughter for a short,
quiet visit in a sterile isolation room.
“She is very pink and swollen, but no more so than after her first
surgery in Portland,” Rachel wrote. “She looks good, all things
considered, and is pink. Pink, not gray, white or blue. But rosy
like a normal baby.”
The first week is the most critical. Mike and Rachel have been told
around 90 percent of infants who get heart transplants go into
rejection during that period and must be given emergency medication
to survive. As of Sunday, Anneke was doing fine and may be released
from the hospital within the week. She is having some difficulty
with eating, which is not uncommon for transplant babies.
Mike, Rachel and Anneke will spend the next four to six months
living near the hospital so Anneke can receive frequent checkups and
so Mike and Rachel can learn how to care for their daughter. When
they take her home to Newberg, they’ll need to watch her for signs
of complications, as organ rejection remains a threat.
“We’re deeply thankful,” said Mahaffy of the transplant surgery. “A
little frightened and apprehensive, as well, but very joyful.”
Anneke will need to be cautious about the risk of disease that
comes with exposure to large groups of people. Otherwise she should
be able to lead a relatively normal life, Mahaffy said.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, where Mahaffy serves as
pastor, has set up a fund to help the Schippers with living and
medical expenses not covered by insurance. To donate, mail checks to
the church at 600 E. Columbia Drive, Newberg, OR 97132.
“It’s been a very good response,” Mahaffy said, adding that his
family has been thankful for the community’s generosity.
But there’s another family that shares a part of this story.
“Last night it hit me hard that somewhere there is another
mommy who gave my baby her baby’s heart,” Rachel wrote on her
Web site the day after the surgery. “It became very real to me, more
so now that it’s all done and final. My heart aches for her and I
pray that she can sleep at night knowing that she has given the best
gift — life.”
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From
July 7, 2004,
Newberg Graphic
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