Leonard L. Bailey

Leonard L. Bailey (b. 1942- ) a surgeon at Loma Linda University Medical Center who on October 26, 1984, placed the heart of a baboon into the chest of "Baby Fae", a neonatal infant born with a severe heart defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Her true identity was kept strictly confidential, so the moniker "Baby Fae" was disseminated throughout world media sources until her mother later revealed her full name:Stephanie Fae Beauclair. Baby Fae only lived 21 days before she died, but this event marked the dawn of infant heart transplants, although baboon and other non-human hearts are no longer used. Still, the additional 21 days was seen as an improvement over the 2-10 day life expectancy of those babies with HLHS.

Dr. Bailey has also performed a number of prominent heart transplantations including Baby Moses and Baby Eve.[1] Baby Moses is the oldest living infant heart transplant recipient. Dr. Bailey was the keynote speaker at the Baccalaureate ceremony for La Sierra University on June 13, 2010.

Notes

  1. ^ LLUMC Legacy: Daring to Care. Chapter 3 Perspective on Neonatal Heart Transplantation. Loma Linda University Medical Center [1]

Further reading