10-year-old heart transplant patient saves the lives of two young children

It started with the gift of a single heart – and ended with three transformed lives.

Doctors at Newy York-Preresbyterian Morgan Stanley children perform a series of extremely rare operations on the same day in July that changed the lives of three children forever.

A heart from a late donor was transplanted into 10-year-old Hend Almesafri, who paid it forward by providing her pulmonary valve John Catoliato, 2, and its aortic valve for Teddy Carter, 3.

Now flourishing, the three children were reunited in the hospital in February, where the Hend surprised her “heart brothers” with gifts and a moment their families will never forget.

“You see these kids interacting and you know people are good,” John’s mother, Joanne Dowling, told The Post.

“We can never come up with a gift for him – what can you buy someone who gave your child the gift of life?”

The scary state of John’s heart

Dowling was 24 weeks pregnant when she discovered that her unborn baby had truncus arteriosus, a condition in which instead of getting two outings from the heart – one going to the body and one going to the lungs – he had only one and one hole in his heart.

She and her husband, Thomas Catoliato, immediately referred to Newy York-Preresbyterian.

“This is our first child together, and simply took a drastic turn – I felt like everything was destroyed by that point ahead,” Joanne said.

“I don’t even know how to describe it, except that your pregnancy is no longer your pregnancy. You are just afraid of that point ahead. But the team did it so it was very quiet.”

She never considered the conclusion.

“I loved it very much [John] Since the minute when I found out I was pregnant with her, “she said.” I knew the doctors in Newy York-Preresbyterian could fix it. If someone can fix it, they would be them. “

He had an open heart surgery when he was only 5 days old and while he went well, it was difficult to admit that he would have to continue to have surgeries all his life – the artificial valve would simply not grow.

So when they learned about the possibility of heart transplantation, they were hopeful.

“Almostny almost as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel for it,” Dowling said. “It is a consolation for us to know that John can never need [another] Open heart surgery – we can never have to hand over our baby again a surgeon. “

In July, she was catching a cup of coffee afternoon when she got the call – they had a match. The Hend would get her whole new heart, but was donating the pulmonary valve completely usable from the old one.

Things moved quickly after that. Catoliato got home from a beach trip and was on the phone with Dr. Andrew Goldstone, Surgical Director of Pediatric Heart Transplanting in Newyork-Presbyterian, to discuss the procedure that evening.

It was a degree of professionalism, kindness, consistency and communication that their souls had kept since they first learned of John’s condition.

“They were like,” that’s what we do for living, right? This is what we go to work every day to do. “So they kept us up.

At 5am the next day, they came to the hospital feeling frightened and confused, but they knew they – and John – were in good hands.

“It was so sunny that day, and John was in his pajamas, and I just looked at him and thought” Buddy, you didn’t even know. “He had no data,” she recalled, with tears. “And and and [the hospital staff] It was just as polite. ”

Although John was only 18 months old at the time, Dowling said the doctors “did not do it traumatizing at all to remove” because they “did it fun for” John, as if he were ready to go on a small trip.

“Newy York-Preresbyterian was so prepared at every level, from overall taking up to the ER all the way to its ER in or,” Catoliato said. “It was almost as if everyone had a team meeting of 50 people for five hours, [so that] Stepdo step, every door that opened, every transition, was smoothly. “

After transplanting, they stayed in contact with John and Katie Carter – the parents of other recipient Teddy.

“We call them brothers of the heart,” Dowling said. “John has one side and Teddy has the other.”

Teddy surgery saving transplantation

Teddy was 2 months old when it was diagnosed with a heart defect called aortic stenosis, which can block or limit blood flow to the heart.

“We were completely surprised,” his mother, Katie, told The Post.

“It was really scary to have a child who needs a very immediate open heart surgery-this is certainly something that no parent wants to pass. But we just had the confidence that we had amazing doctors in New York-Preresbyterian and we were lucky to live in New York and have access to such extraordinary care.“

Despite numerous procedures, Teddy would need some more open heart surgeries before reaching adulthood – wouldn’t it be for this heart transplant.

Two young children, a heart donation

This type of surgery-in which a donor’s heart is used to obtain multiple receivers-is called the domino heart transplant with root of separation, and is quite unusual.

“A partial transplantation of the dominoes with the root of separation is extremely rare and is performed only several times and, until this operation, never in the northeast,” the Goldstone Post told.

“We are uniquely positioned to perform domino transplants and dominos with separate roots due to surgical expertise and team in all aspects of cardiovascular disease and transplantation, and the resources needed to make this all reality.”

On the day of procedures, Dr. David Kalfa and his team began the HAND operation at 8am. After her old heart was removed, the pulmonary valve was given to Dr. Goldstone – who immediately entered the next room to start operating in John.

When Dr. Kalfa finished the Hend transplant until mid-afternoon, his team moved to Teddy, whose operation-the last one was completed-ended at 4am.

All three recipients are doing well, and they were reunited in the hospital in February – a dowling experience described as “surreal” and “humble”.

“You see this little girl and she has gift bags – she bought gifts,” Dowling said. “I thought,” Oh my Lord, we got nothing. “But what can you give to someone who gave your child an opportunity to live?”

“It was simply special to be able to spend some time together,” Katie Carter said.

And if you think kids are too young to really understand what was happening, according to Teddy’s father, they seem to understand more than you expect.

“We were in the car traveling to [Teddy’s] The appointment another day, and he said, ‘My heart was broken and now it is fixed,’ his father said.