Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GEORGIA HENEGHAN THE FREE-LANCE STAR
DATELINE: BOWLING GREEN (AP) LENGTH: Medium
She was focused on checking Caleb Bise's pulse, heart rate, mood, color and temperature. She monitored how much he ate and made sure he took his medications on time.
Now Caleb, who turned 4 Wednesday, doesn't give his mom much of a chance to fuss with such details. He's usually too busy racing Go Karts around the block or splashing in the backyard swimming pool with his older sister and brother.
``He's so full of life I can barely keep up with him,'' said Bise, 32, of Caroline County.
Those at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Transplant Center said Caleb has made an outstanding recovery.
``He's done extremely well. It's a real cause for celebration,'' said Maureen Flattery, a transplant coordinator.
Caleb was born Aug.3, 1990, with several serious heart defects. He was immediately placed on MCV's organ transplant list and waited just 28 days before receiving a matching donor heart. He is MCV's youngest heart transplant recipient.
Caleb's young age actually made him a good candidate for the transplant. The immune system accepts organ transplants more readily in infancy, so children are less likely to have complications.
The past few years have borne that out.
Caleb fights off colds easily, Bise said. And there have been no emergency trips to the hospital, just the routine visits he makes to the Richmond transplant center every three months for blood work, every six months for a heart tissue biopsy and every year for an angiogram of his heart.
Developmentally, Caleb is exactly where he should be, Flattery said.
His 11-year-old brother, Asa, and 8-year-old sister, Darrah, are very protective of Caleb and don't even want him to start preschool this fall, Bise said.
``They tell me he's too small to go to school and that he just doesn't need to go. They worry he'll get lost or fall, and they won't be there to pick him up. They worry about him all the time,'' she said.
Because transplants have been performed on babies for only the past 10 years, there aren't any good figures on long-term survival, Flattery said. The mortality rate for infants who receive heart transplants is about 50 percent during the first year.
If all goes well, Caleb should lead a normal life, Flattery said. But there always will be the life-threatening risk of rejection and, more commonly in heart transplant patients, coronary heart disease.
Coronary heart disease is difficult to treat in transplant patients because it progresses so rapidly, said Merv Baldecchi with the transplant center.
The scar that once stretched down the center of Caleb's chest has faded and is about a quarter of its original size.
``Caleb is proud of his little scar. But other than that, he really doesn't think much of his condition. I've told him about it ever since he was little, and it doesn't bother him in the least,'' his mother said.
Bise has been through a recovery process of her own.
Because of Caleb's condition, she was forced to quit working to look after him and went on Medicaid.
The single mother is now enrolled at Germanna Community College and will graduate in May with her associate's degree. She plans to continue school until she gets her doctorate in psychology.
by CNB