In California in October 1984, a woman who had just given birth hugged her husband at home. She wasn't happy that she had a baby, but because a medical doctor called her — there was an operation to keep the baby alive.
Just a few days ago, she just finished giving birth and looked at the doctor with pain in her eyes and said.
Although the doctor's words were tactful, they also clearly conveyed two cruel messages: first, let the child stay in the hospital and wait for death; Second, take the child home and wait for death.
It's not the doctor's fault, it's no one's fault.
When the child was born, her heart was incomplete, only half, and she would not live long under the medical conditions of the time.
Realizing these facts made Theresa couldn't help but burst into tears.
After learning that the child could not survive for long because of the congenital disability, Teresa fell into deep pain, and finally she decided to take the child home.
Unfortunate children
Teresa Poclair was 24 at the time and had a two-and-a-half-year-old son. Her daughter is called Stephanie Fae Beauclair.
Not long after Stephanie was born, doctors examined her comprehensively and quickly confirmed that Stephanie's survival time was only a few hours to a few days because her heart was not successfully developed and she had a deformity.
To confirm further, Teresa quickly sent the child to Loma Linda University School of Medicine, hoping that doctors could perform repair surgery.
However, medical conditions at the time could not extend the life expectancy of the child to more than a month.
As for heart transplants, they only exist in theory, and the possibility of finding a suitable match alone is close to zero, and other heart transplants that have ever been performed have failed.
Teresa was grieving but unable to do anything, she slowly accepted the reality and returned home with her child, hoping to spend her last moments at home.
Teresa didn't know how long the child would live, every second was an endless ordeal, and she waited in horror for her fate to finally come.
Just when Teresa was already desperate, she received a phone call.
This phone call kindled a flame of hope in Theresa's heart: Stephanie seemed to have a glimmer of life!
But as she learned more, she began to wonder if the plan proposed by a doctor named Leonard Bailey was really feasible.
Dr. Bailey is a thoracic surgeon and cardiovascular surgeon.
Born on August 28, 1942, he went well on his way from university to master's degree, culminating in his doctoral studies in 1969.
In his career, Bailey has seen too many newborns die of underdeveloped hearts, and he can't do anything about it.
This undoubtedly pained him, and he always believed that if these babies could get a healthy heart, then they would survive.
In 1976, Dr. Bailey came to work at the hospital where Stephanie was treated.
He focused his research on organ transplantation. For research, he has done more than 200 experiments, large and small, all on animals, of course.
But when Stephanie was sent to Loma Linda University, Dr. Bailey was not in the hospital.
When a colleague told him about Stephanie, Dr. Bailey commissioned his assistant to propose his plan to Theresa: use the heart of a baby baboon to perform a transplant for Stephanie.
When she first heard this, Teresa thought that this doctor must be crazy, just like those scientists who would stop at nothing for scientific experiments.
But the news made her excited and trepidious like a shot in the arm, and Teresa repeatedly told herself, this is an opportunity, isn't it? Maybe Stephanie would really survive?
As the implementer of this plan, Dr. Bailey is well aware of the risks.
But he still thinks it's worth trying, first of all, if it works, Stephanie and even more newborns could be alive again.
Secondly, this will have an extremely significant impact and significance on his scientific research work.
Teresa and her friends took Stephanie to Loma Linda University again, late at night, and Dr. Bailey received them in his office.
In the face of Teresa's confusion and doubts, Dr. Bailey gave her research results and surgical plan, and confessed to her about the risks of surgery.
Before Stephanie, there had been cases of xenotransplantation, in which a person received a heart transplant from a chimpanzee but the surgery failed.
Other surgeons later tried the procedure, and the longest survival time after surgery was 9 months.
If Stephanie had had the right resources for heart donation, combined with effective anti-rejection drugs, her life might have been saved, but there were no such organ donors at the time.
Because of the ethical and religious issues involved, such transplants are more difficult.
At that time, the ethics committee at Loma Linda University Hospital had approved 5 related surgeries.
The university's hospital is predominantly Christian, and all the ethicists and theologians in the church have been involved in discussions about the procedure.
They believe Stephanie should have received a heart transplant.
Failed surgery
After a painful struggle and consideration, Teresa finally decided to hand over Stephanie to Dr. Bailey and his team.
Dr. Bailey had clearly told her that the procedure was highly experimental and that rejection was likely to occur after the transplant.
Theresa knew that the child was likely to die, but she had no choice but to try as hard as she could.
Theresa only wants the child to survive, and if she hadn't agreed to the operation, she would probably have fallen into endless regret for the rest of her life.
The transplantation of organs from other animals into humans is a huge issue, involving not only medicine, but also social morality and ethics.
In order to protect the child, when announcing the operation, Dr. Bailey gave the child a pseudonym Feibao.
Once the decision was made to operate, Dr. Bailey and his team immediately began a variety of preparations.
They selected six juvenile baboons as candidates for heart donors, and then they conducted various tests on these baboons and Feibao.
Unfortunately, none of the 6 juvenile baboons matched Feibao's blood type, but time was short, they did not have time to choose another heart donor, and the critically ill Feibao could die at any time.
On October 26, 1984, only 12 days old Feibao underwent surgery.
Dr. Bailey and his research team carefully carried out one operation after another in the operating room, they dared not be negligent, and everyone's nerves were extremely tight.
The surgical steps were carried out one by one, and after the final stitching, the doctors did not feel the slightest sense of relaxation, they nervously awaited the initial reaction of Feibao.
Soon, they had the first good news, and the baboon heart transplanted into Feibao's body began to work properly!
The hospital soon held a press conference, and Dr. Bailey announced the good news.
The operation quickly became the focus of public attention around the world, and for a while, Loma Linda was packed with journalists from all over the world.
Society has reacted differently, with some cheering Feibao's new life and others saying it has significant implications for patients with underdeveloped hearts.
Others believe that Feibao's parents have no idea what surgery their child is undergoing.
Animal rights groups have also protested against killing baboons to save human babies. They marched and gathered in front of the hospital and Dr. Bailey's house to protest.
Regardless of the reaction from the outside world, the doctors' first priority is to ensure that Feibao can survive, and they take good care of Feibao in the hospital, carrying out various physical tests every day.
Feibao looks fine, her wound is not infected, and the test results show that all indicators are normal.
Some medical staff burst into tears with excitement, which they thought was a miracle of life.
Regrettably, this miracle did not last long, and Feibao experienced an uncontrollable rejection reaction.
Ten days after the surgery, Feibao's breathing became abnormal and he began to stop wanting to eat.
The results of the examination on November 9 showed that Feibao's heart function was impaired. After 3 days, her body very much rejected the new organ in her body.
At 9 p.m. on November 15, Feibao, who was just one month old, said goodbye to the world and the people who tried to save her life.
After receiving a heart transplant, she survived for 21 days.
On the 2nd day after Feibao's death, Dr. Bailey announced the sad and regrettable news at a press conference, and the media and social doubts reached a peak because of the matter, and the operation was questioned.
Dr. Bailey, though very sad, still had faith in the transplant.
He once told reporters that Feibao and his family have given great courage, their sacrifice is not unworthy, and in the near future, more children similar to Feibao will be saved.
What Dr. Bailey said is not empty words, Feibao has provided extremely valuable experience and a lot of research materials for this case, and he has not stopped his research work because of external doubts.
The following year, Dr. Bailey and his team performed the world's first human-to-person pediatric heart transplant at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Dr. Bailey went on to perform pediatric heart surgeries, adding up to 376 times.
Until 2017, at the age of 74, Dr. Bailey still operated on the operating table.
What happened later
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bailey and other medical staff and researchers, Loma Linda University School of Medicine has gradually become the world's authority on infant heart transplantation.
The experience accumulated over the years and the outstanding medical staff have provided many solutions for babies with heart disease, including heart transplants.
A year after Feibao's death, her mother, Teresa, returned to her hometown of Kansas with her son.
Years later, Teresa moved Feibao's grave to her hometown, perhaps hoping that her daughter would be closer to her, and Teresa later had two children, both of whom are now adults.
Teresa and Dr. Bailey kept in touch for a long time, and she didn't think she was blinded by her decision.
Despite the tragic death of Feibao, Teresa knew that Dr. Bailey had done her best, and Dr. Bailey had saved many children over the years.
In an interview with reporters, Teresa said Dr. Bailey is "the heart of these hearts."
Feibao's operation took place in the 80s of the last century, more than thirty years have passed since then, in these thirty years, human science and technology and medicine are constantly advancing, and people's awareness of organ donation is getting stronger and stronger.
So, if you encounter the same problem now, is there a way to solve it?
In fact, it is still difficult for patients who need transplants to find donor organs, and there is still a serious shortage of transplanted organs, which has prompted scientists to continue to explore xenotransplantation.
The so-called xenotransplantation is the transplantation of organs or cells from monkeys, pigs and other animals into people, as Feibao underwent surgery.
For now, this approach has advantages over waiting for the same human organ to be transplanted.
But this method is not smooth sailing, rejection reaction is the biggest difficulty, rejection reaction between different organisms is much greater than the same species, to solve this problem to face many difficulties.
Some patients who receive such a transplant not only do not recover their health, but may also develop some complications.
In recent years, due to the gradual deepening of medical scientists' research on genes and other related sciences, xenotransplantation is no longer impossible.
Scientists began studying a wide variety of donors, including baboons, chimpanzees, and even sheep, pigs, and more.
At present, many medical teams are conducting research on the topic of xenotransplantation, and a lot of progress has been made, but xenotransplantation has always been controversial in ethics and morality in addition to the difficulties faced in medicine.
Many people ask: If your heart or brain is replaced by an animal, are you still alone? Will the line between man and beast become increasingly blurred?
In a short period of time, complex factors such as medicine, psychology, law, and religious beliefs will plague this project, and if these problems can be solved one by one, then countless patients with heart defects will be completely saved and reborn.
It's not easy, and people still need to move forward on the road of exploration.
On May 12, 2019, Dr. Bailey passed away from throat cancer.
During his decades-long medical career, he performed countless Feibao-like surgeries (except for not replacing it with a baboon's heart).
Many of them were fortunate enough to have a new life, and some also became doctors.
However, Feibao has always remained deeply in Dr. Bailey's heart.
epilogue
On the road of scientific exploration, people always face various difficulties, but it is precisely because of these difficulties that people have learned many valuable lessons.
It is hoped that in the near future, human organ transplantation will have greater development, and countless patients will be rejuvenated.
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39 Health Network: "37 years ago, doctors transplanted baboon's heart to a baby girl, how long did she live?" 》