n the 21 years since the world was captivated by the drama of Baby Fae, who received a baboon's heart in a surgery performed by Leonard L. Bailey, M.D., scores of infants have received human-heart transplants through Loma Linda University's Pediatric Heart Transplant Program

One of those tiny patients was Dillon Sellers. Born in October of 2002, he seemed a normal and healthy baby. But at a routine checkup when Dillon was 10 days old, his doctors discovered heart problems so dangerous that they arranged for Dillon to be life-flighted to Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. There Dillon was placed in the intensive care unit-and on a respirator. Once Dillon was stabilized, Loma Linda's pediatric cardiologists began a series of tests, leading to a diagnosis of hypoplastic left-heart syndrome (HLHS). His only hope was a heart transplant.

It would be 136 days before a suitable donor materialized. But on March 12, 2003, at nearly 5 months of age, Dillon underwent transplant surgery. His surgeons were Anees Razzouk, M.D., chief of Loma Linda's Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Leonard L. Bailey, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery for Loma Linda University and Medical Center and surgeon and chief at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

Dillon's surgery was a total success, and today he is a happy 21/2-year-old, doted on by his parents Hal and Betsy, and his two older brothers. His parents remain deeply grateful for the compassionate and supportive care their baby received at Loma Linda.