A mother uses breastfeeding to comfort her
baby who endures a heart transplant courtesy
The
Compleat Mother
 A
17-month-old breastfeeding baby with an oversized heart received a
chance for a long, healthy life thanks to an anonymous donor family,
who in their grief of losing a child, thought of another in need.
The five-times-too-large heart of Robert Fontaine Thompson stopped
beating at 8 p.m. July 21, 1999. His new heart began at 9:31 p.m. at
Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Parents Susan and Ron Thompson
of Courtney, British Columbia, who were with Robbie, hospitalized
since his diagnosis at five months, heard the news at 4 a.m.
On three earlier occasions, a donor heart of compatible blood type was
available, but Robbie wasn't critically ill enough to be the top of
the list of possible recipients. But heading toward major kidney
failure, unable to hold down food and about to be transferred to
critical care, Robbie was first on the list when the donation was
made.
Robbie went into surgery at 5:15 p.m. and was transferred out at 11:30
p.m. His ventilator was removed in less than 48 hours, and drainage
tubes and catheters followed the next day. Five days after surgery, he
was transferred to a ward room, breastfeeding more vigorously than
ever and with an abundance of energy.
"The doctors are happy he nurses so much. We were able to stop
using the tube that went into his belly, and his recovery is
remarkably fast," said Ron. His son's first biopsy showed zero
rejection.
Susan thought breastfeeding was important for the first six months.
"I had seen a woman nursing a three-year-old and I thought she
must be crazy. Now I know if Robbie lives to be three, he'll be a
breastfeeding three-year-old too," said the former lab
technician.
Baby Robbie was a frequent nurser, and finicky. "If I cradled him
to nurse, he would scream, so there I was at the moms meetings, lying
on the floor latching him on. Later we understood: when I cradled him,
it squeezed his heart, and it was hard for him to breath," Susan
said.
He had poor weight gain, and his mother took him to the public health
nurse and the doctor twice a week. "They said I was a nervous
first-time mother, and to go home and relax, but I knew something was
wrong. At three months, he was only 11 pounds while other babies were
16 and 17 pounds," Susan said.
At five months, a second opinion she insisted on called for an x-ray
for suspected pneumonia. The results were shocking, and not what the
Thompsons wanted to hear: a grossly enlarged heart. A priest was
called, Robbie was baptized, anointed and given communion, and his
parents never went home. "We were lucky we got him diagnosed
properly before he died."
 Robbie was sent by helicopter to Children's Hospital in Vancouver,
where Susan was encouraged to continue breastfeeding. "We were
kangaroo parents," said Ron, a video producer who quit his work
to care for his son. "Looking after Robbie was a full-time job
for two parents. Susan stayed at the hospital in a shared bed with
Robbie, nursing him a couple of times in the night, and I took over in
the day, making sure she got a break."
In
Toronto at the Hospital for Sick Children, waiting for a donated
heart, the family was still encouraged to breastfeed. "In
January, our doctor said he couldn't believe how well our son
was," after enduring endless tests, being confined to an IV pole
and a g-tube feeding him 5,000 calories a day of calorie-fortified
breastmilk.
"He was well because he had good parental care, and that means
breastfeeding too," Susan said. "After he was poked and
prodded and blood samples taken and needles given, I just lay on the
bed and nursed him and calmed him right away."
Susan made good use of the breastpumps at the hospital and shocked
more than one pumping mother of a preemie who asked how old her baby
was, who expected an answer in days, not months.
Tiny Robbie had not gained much weight since his diagnosis. The cells
in the left side of his heart didn't contract, so the heart became
large, and there was inadequate blood supply to his body. He could sit
up with help, but was unable to crawl.
Two weeks after the transplant operation, Robbie is "eating all
the time and starting to grow," reported Ron. "He is warm
and pink and peeing like a racehorse! We fuss over him like a couple
of idiots and go for long walks each day."
It has been a difficult, but ultimately rewarding year for the
Thompsons. "We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the anonymous
donor family, the exceptional team of doctors and nurses at the
Hospital for Sick Children who are the hardest working people we will
ever encounter, and all our friends and family who supported us,"
Ron and Sue said.
Ironically, although Canada leads in anti-rejection research, its
citizens have the poorest rate of organ donation in the world.
Although they aren't sure, the Thompsons believe the heart came from
a family in New Jersey.
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Breastfeeding
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