Even before Michael Bufalini was born, his parents, John and Cindy, considered him a miracle. Following three miscarriages and many test and procedures, this was the first pregnancy that seemed to be going well. Then at 28 weeks gestation things changed drastically. Cindy was rushed to Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown with a placental abruption. He was born on May 4, ten weeks premature and weighing only three pounds six ounces. He was unable to breath on his own and had to be put on a ventilator and fed intravenously. Thanks to the care provided at Samaritan Medical Center’s NICU where he was transferred for the final weeks of his hospitalization, Michael grew stronger and was eventually able to breath on his own. His frightening entrance into the world left him with no lasting medical conditions.
Surgeons at Primary Children's Hospital, a Children's Miracle Network Hospital, have hooked up the smallest artificial heart pump into the smallest patient ever, at least for anyone in Utah. It also marks the beginning of a whole new pediatric implant program there. Eight-month-old Kaidence McCall Stephenson is alive tonight at Primary Children's thanks to a very little heart pump. They're called ventricular heart assist devices, designed to take over the load of a failing heart, and they've been around a long time. More than 200 have been implanted in Utah adults since 1993. However, this is not one of those big LVAD pumps. This little Berlin Heart, as it's called, was hooked up to the heart of eight-month-old Kaidence yesterday. While tubes are implanted directly to the left side of her heart, the pump itself remains outside the body. It will keep Kaidence healthy while waiting for a real heart transplant, or maybe to let her heart rest so it just might recover on its own.
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