
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993                   TAG: 9312310126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

HEART-TRANSPLANT PATIENT HAS BIRTHDAY

A smiling Sabrina Rodriguez sat on her stepfather's lap Wednesday, giggling as she opened presents and ate birthday cake at Medical Center Hospital.

But it wasn't a typical birthday party for the animated 3-year-old. It also was a celebration of her third anniversary as the first newborn heart transplant patient in South Texas.

Sabrina weighed 7 pounds when she underwent the four-hour surgery that gave her a new lease on life. She was slowly developing heart failure and would have died within months if she had been left untreated. San Antonio Express-News

by CNB