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Gladys Rodriguez with 17-year-old son Alex Stephens.
After over a year of attempted treatments, seven weeks spent in the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, and 11 hours in the operating room, 17-year-old Alex Stephens finally has a new heart.
In October, Stephens was the first pediatric patient to undergo a pediatric heart transplant since the hospital children hospital to receive approval to perform them. Yale New Haven doctors hope he’ll be one of many more young transplant recipients to come.
Members of the medical team involved gathered with Stephens and his mother, Gladys Rodriguez, to share the news of his surgery’s success at a Zoom press conference on Monday afternoon.
“It was the work of literally hundreds of people and over a year and a half of planning,” said Peter Gruber, the head of pediatric heart surgery at the hospital.
Contributed photos
From left: Jeremy Asnes, Peter Gruber, and Kevin Hall.
Worldwide, between 600 and 700 pediatric heart transplants take place each year, according to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Fifty-eight medical centers performed pediatric heart transplants in the United States between June 2017 and June 2018.
According to Pediatric Cardiology Director Jeremy Asnes, between six and 10 children in Connecticut go out of state for heart transplants every year. Now, kids across the state in need of heart transplants will have the option of staying close to home to receive their medical care.
Stephens, who lives in Hartford, first sought treatment from the hospital’s cardiac team a year before the October surgery.
The doctors tried a “tailored medical regimen,” but “despite our best medical efforts, our vigilant hospital care, and even our love, these medical treatments were ultimately insufficient,” said Pediatric Heart Transplant Director Kevin Hall.
It became clear that Stephens would need a transplant, said Hall. Stephens spent seven weeks in the hospital, where due to the pandemic, the only visitor he was allowed to see was his mother.
“We worked hour by hour to keep him healthy and strong enough” for the procedure, said Hall.
Two months after the transplant, Stephens is home with his family in time for the Christmas. He said he enjoys watching the sci-fi TV show Stranger Things. His competitive side comes out when he plays video games like the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series. He’s a massive Dallas Cowboys fan, and hopes to play football as soon as he’s cleared.
Stephens will continue to need care, possibly for the rest of his life, said Hall. “We look forward to watching him grow up, and we all know he’s going to change the world for the better.”
“All this happened in just one year,” reflected momr Gladys. “To see him now, he’s doing so much better. It’s like having my old Alex back … He’s just happier and has more strength. He’s a normal teenager.”
“Thanks to every one of you guys for giving me my son back,” she told the doctors.
Pediatric heart transplants require a different set of skills than adult transplants, the doctors said.
“Pediatric heart transplantation is similar [to adult heart transplants] in the sense that you’re replacing the heart, but almost everything else is different,” said Gruber. The size of the heart is smaller, and the organ responds differently to transplant procedures in young people. “Children have different physiology, different immunology, different social needs,” Gruber explained.
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital doctors said they are building a program for this kind of procedure.
Stephens’ surgery “really paves the way for everything we’ll do in the future,” said Gruber.
“We learn from every patient we care for,” said Asnes. “As we evolve this program, we will continue to pursue excellence and Alex is part of that. He’s part of the foundation of the transplant program.”
To future transplant patients, Stephens offered some words of advice with a shy smile: “Be prepared to be stuck in a room for a while and get poked a lot.”