Prospective infant heart donor may be unsuitable, doctors say

The hopes a donor had been found for a life-saving heart transplant for the baby of a P.E.I. couple appear to have waned.

Lillian O'Connor, born March 9, suffers from a condition called truncus arteriosus, which leaves her blood short of oxygen. She is waiting at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto for a heart transplant, and doctors say that without it she can only survive a few more weeks.

On Saturday her parents, Melanie Bernard and Kevin O'Connor, thought they had found the miracle they were looking for when the parents of another baby girl — in the same hospital — came forward. 

Jason Wallace and Crystal Vitelli's daughter Kaylee has a rare malformation of the brain and is unable to breathe without a machine. They said they knew their daughter was dying and they'd exhausted all medical resources. They wanted her heart to go to Lillian O'Connor.

But the medical opinion of the plan was not optimistic. Earlier, physicians at the hospital said that when Kaylee is taken off life support, it will likely take her too long to die to make her heart useful for transplant.

On Monday, Kaylee's parents were allowed to sign consent papers for transplant.

The consent doesn't mean the transplant will happen, since doctors still have to test if Kaylee's heart has a chance of being viable.

Even if it is OK, it's not certain that the Lillian will be the recipent, since it depends on if she is at the top of the list. Someone's ranking on the list is determined by their need.

If Lillian doesn't receive the heart, she will move up on the list.

Kaylee's parents want a donation team to be on standby, but hospital officials have so far rejected that idea.