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6-year-old With Heart Condition Sworn In As Honorary Police Officer

A 6-year-old boy from Chicago who has endured dozens of medical procedures and surgeries due to a heart condition received a sweet recognition from his community this week.

On Tuesday night, Keyjuan Andrew, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has already endured more than 58 medical procedures and 15 surgeries, was sworn in as an honorary officer with the Lynwood Police Department, according to ABC Chicago affiliate WLS-TV.

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6-year-old Keyjuan Andrew was sworn in as an honorary Lynwood police officer.

WLS

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency estimates that each year, about 1,025 babies in the United States are born with the condition.

Keyjuan was also given the opportunity to go on patrol with Lynwood Police Chief Gregory Thomas.

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"We are grateful for Keyjuan's life, but moreover his courageous spirit," Thomas said. "It is his zest to live that has inspired the Lynwood community. In addition, his respect for the badge has brought so much joy to our department. We are excited to have him as part of our team."

Orange Beach Boy With Rare Genetic Heart Defect UAB-bound For More Treatments

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (WKRG) — A 7-year-old boy born with a rare genetic heart defect is back in the hospital and his family is looking for the next steps.

About Fisher Nelson

WKRG News 5's Rose Ann Haven previously talked with Fisher Nelson and his family in February 2023.

Fisher is described as "full of life and full of energy." According to his father, Eric Nelson, he is always "running around playing and he never meets a stranger, really a joy to be around."

However, according to past reporting, Fisher Nelson was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, also referred to as a broken heart, a rare genetic condition where "the left side of the heart does not form correctly."

Throughout his life, Fisher has undergone three open-heart surgeries at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, with the first at just four days old.

Since his last surgery, Brooke Nelson, Fisher's mom, said that aside from routine appointments for his heart condition, Fisher has lived a normal life.

What is happening now?

Now, "3 years since Fisher's last open heart surgery," the family has realized they need to get Fisher back to Houston for more treatment.

That's because of what happened Easter Sunday.

In a Facebook post on Easter, Brooke McPherson Nelson shared that she found Fisher in the bathroom.

She wrote that he was "sweaty, pale, and all he could tell me was that his heart hurt and to hold him.

"As soon as Eric and I put our eyes on him, we knew something was definitely wrong that warranted a trip to the ER."

The family rushed him to Sacred Heart Hospital, where doctors found he had elevated cardiac markers.

According to Nelson, the labs typically peak and then go down to normal levels. However, this morning Fisher's labs were elevated again.

"After more tests and consulting his cardiology team in Houston, his team decided he needed to be transferred in order to determine the next course of action as there isn't a hospital nearby that treats single ventricle patients," Nelson shared in her post.

But, the family is running into some obstacles preventing further treatment.

Difficulties with Treatment

Although Fisher's cardiac markers continue to be elevated, which Nelson shares is a sign that he needs to be in Houston "sooner than later," that may not be possible.

She wrote in a Facebook post this afternoon, "The weather is not cooperating with us to fly to Houston at the moment "

In addition to flights being impossible to obtain at the moment, Brooke Nelson says that securing ground transport is proving to be difficult as well.

"Sacred Heart is working hard to get us transferred by ground, but several medical transportation services have declined due to distance. Please pray specifically that we can get to Houston today and that Fisher will remain stable."

So, what's next?

Since the family cannot make it to Fisher's previous care team in Houston, Brooke Nelson shared that they are headed to UAB.

But they will see a familiar face at the hospital.

According to Nelson, the family reached out to pediatric cardiology specialist at UAB, Dr. Jonny Byrnes, who they met at WKRG's Art for Heart event.

"The PICU team at Sacred Heart along with our pediatric cardiologist Dr. Theresa Roca, have taken the best care of Fisher and advocated for him in every way possible," said Brooke Nelson.

"They have worked closely with the team at UAB to make the transfer as quickly as possible."

Currently, the family reports that Fisher is "in good spirits" and awaits transfer to UAB.

Woman Becomes First Person To Receive Both Pig Kidney Transplant And Heart Pump

April 24, 2024

5 min read

Woman Becomes First Person to Receive Both Pig Kidney Transplant and Heart Pump

A woman with life-threatening heart and kidney disease became the second person ever to receive a genetically modified pig kidney and the first person to receive a heart pump and a transplanted organ together

By Tanya Lewis

Robert Montgomery, professor and chair of the department of surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, prepares the surgical site for xenotransplantation surgery for Lisa Pisano on April 12, 2024.

Joe Carrotta for NYU Langone Health

People with heart failure may be eligible to receive a heart transplant; people with kidney failure may be lucky enough to receive a kidney transplant. But for many people with both heart and kidney disease—who may be ineligible to be listed for a transplant or cannot receive both organs in time—options are extremely limited.

Scientists at NYU Langone Health in New York City, however, have now completed a first-of-its-kind procedure involving surgery to install a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), or mechanical heart pump, followed by transplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney. It is the first time someone with an LVAD has received a transplant of any kind (except for a heart transplant to replace the device) and only the second time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person.

The achievement creates a potential avenue for treating people with both heart and kidney disease. "Our success in this one patient is going to open up a lot of possibilities for the thousands of patients out there who have some combination of problems with the heart and the kidney," says Nader Moazami, chief of the division of heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who performed the LVAD surgery.

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There is enormous demand for kidney and other transplants but not nearly enough donor organs available. In the past few years, however, scientists have made significant progress in transplanting organs from nonhuman species to humans, known as xenotransplantation.

In late March surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital announced they had completed the first genetically modified pig kidney transplant in a living person: a 62-year-old man with end-stage kidney disease named Richard Slayman. After an early episode of immune rejection, which was successfully treated, Slayman was discharged to live at home and is doing well, according to his transplant team.

The recipient of the recent LVAD surgery and kidney xenotransplant was Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old grandmother in New Jersey who had heart failure and end-stage kidney disease and was on dialysis. Pisano was ineligible to receive a human heart and kidney transplant because she had many contraindications that would have made both finding an organ and surviving the procedure unlikely, and her life expectancy was very limited. Her experimental surgery was performed under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Expanded Access program, sometimes referred to as "compassionate use"—a pathway for people who have a serious disease with few treatment options.

First, a team led by Moazami implanted an LVAD in Pisano on April 4. Most people who are on dialysis are ineligible to receive an LVAD because there is a very high mortality rate in such individuals. That's where the xenotransplanted kidney came in.

The left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, is prepared for implantation into Lisa Pisano on April 4, 2024.

Haley Ricciardi/NYU Langone Health

On April 12 a team led by Robert Montgomery, chair of the department of surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, transplanted the kidney with an embedded thymus gland of a pig into Pisano. The pig had been genetically edited to remove a gene that results in the production of a sugar called alpha-gal—which can trigger an immune response in the human body that could cause it to reject a pig organ. The thymus gland was included in the hope that it might ultimately reduce the amount of immunosuppressive medication needed after transplant by training the immune system not to attack the foreign kidney.

The team had to figure out the right flow rate for the heart pump to allow the transplanted kidney to function effectively. Yet as soon as they did, the organ started producing urine and creatinine, a key waste product that kidneys are supposed to remove. "There were things we had to learn because it hadn't been done before," Montgomery says.

There were some important differences between the NYU Langone xenotransplant and the earlier one at Mass General. "There are basically two potential ways of thinking of how xenotransplantation may help patients," says Leonardo Riella, chair of transplantation and medical director for kidney transplantation at Mass General, who helped lead the team that performed the earlier pig kidney transplant."On one side, we have the kidney transplant candidates that are on the waiting list, who unfortunately don't have a donor—but they have been approved to receive a human kidney transplant," he says. That was the case with his team's xenotransplant recipient, Slayman. The other way xenotransplantation could help, Riella says, is with "a patient who's not a candidate for a human organ transplantation but [who is offered] the xenotransplant as a potential last resort," as was the case with Pisano.

Pisano was likely much sicker than Slayman, Riella says. Unlike Slayman, she was not eligible for a human organ transplant, and she also had both heart and kidney failure, whereas he had kidney failure alone. "There are values in both [types of surgery]," Riella says. Yet "doing it with a patient who's not a [human organ] transplant candidate usually carries higher risk."

Additionally, Pisano received an organ from a pig that had had only one genetic modification, whereas Slayman received one from an animal with 69 genetic edits. It remains to be seen whether such additional edits are necessary for the long-term survival of such xenotransplanted organs in people.

Pisano has so far shown no signs of acute immune rejection. The critical point for that may come around a month after surgery, however, Montgomery says. For now, he and his colleagues are continuing to monitor her closely.

"I do think it's incredibly exciting we now have a second genetically edited pig kidney that's been put into a living person," says Jayme Locke, director of the division of transplantation and chair of transplantation surgeryat the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose team has performed previous pig kidney transplants in humans who have had brain death. "Like with any other transplant, in the early days, we want to make sure that we have control of the immune system and that there aren't early rejections," she says. "If this works, that's incredibly positive."

The two recent kidney xenotransplants will provide scientists with valuable knowledge about the procedure's safety and effectiveness. But both the NYU Langone and Mass General teams note that clinical trials in a larger group of people are an important next step before xenotransplants can become an approved treatment and help to address the immense need for organs.

As for Pisano, Montgomery says that she knew the risks of the procedure going in, but she felt it was worth it for the chance of extending her life. "She knew she was going to die and that she didn't have much time," he says. "Right from the beginning, she said, 'I want to spend time with my grandkids and have some more time.'"

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