5-Month-Old Baby with Heart Failure Receives 'Gift of Life'

NEW YORK CITY, NY (March 26, 2009) -- Five-month-old Adrian Flores went home from The Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) with a new heart on March 26, just 13 days after he underwent the first pediatric heart transplant ever performed in the Bronx.

The dramatic, life-saving surgery came only a week after Adrian was admitted to CHAM with acute heart failure, medically known as cardiomyopathy. Samuel Weinstein, MD, Director of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, and his surgical team operated just in time to save Adrian's life. The diagnosis and important after-care were provided by Daphne Hsu, MD, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology; Jacqueline Lamour, MD, Director of Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies; and their Pediatric Cardiology team.

Adrian's parents, Juan Carlos and Sandra Flores, were grateful and elated that Adrian was able to be discharged to his home in the Bronx after less than two weeks in CHAM's superb Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  A host of media covered Adrian's discharge, as the baby was carried through CHAM's doors by his happy parents.

CHAM's Pediatric Heart Transplant Program gives Montefiore the ability to treat any congenital or acquired children's heart abnormality, right here in the Bronx.

CHAM's application for its pediatric heart transplant program was approved by the New York State Department of Health last August. At the time of the announcement, Steven M. Sayfer, MD, President and CEO of Montefiore, said, "By adding pediatric heart transplantation to the full range of care we offer our youngest patients, we better meet the significant health care needs of our Bronx community."

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