THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080331
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 36 lines
The Virginia Beach teen-ager who had needed a special pump to sustain his dying heart went home Tuesday, after recovering nicely from a transplant.
Will Walton, 17, got a new heart on Dec. 28. In September, he had become the first Hampton Roads patient to leave the hospital wearing a new portable heart pump. The pump kept his failing heart going while he awaited an organ for transplant. Previous versions of the pump had been too large and heavy to allow patients to be discharged with them.
Dr. Jeffrey Rich said it will be two or three months before Will has lost all the soreness and other side effects from his operation, before he gets up in the morning ``and forgets he had a transplant.''
He will take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life. But aside from that, Will should feel as healthy and strong as any teen-ager, Rich said.
A biopsy - in which doctors remove some heart tissue to put it under a microscope - showed no signs of rejection. He will continue to have these tests periodically to make sure his body isn't treating the new heart as a foreign invader and trying to destroy it.
Patients can suffer rejection without noticing any symptoms. In the long run, this sneak attack from the immune system can damage the new heart, especially the arteries.
The biopsy looks to see whether heart muscle has been infiltrated by T lymphocytes, a type of immune system cell. Will's heart was clean, Rich said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Will Walton, 17, is recovering nicely, doctors say, from transplant
surgery
he had Dec. 28.
KEYWORDS: HEART TRANSPLANT TEENAGER