Inside Pediatrics Winter 2018

weaning from ventilator support to use of the patient’s own respiratory system so that the children may be better candidates for successful transplantation or so that long- term cardiac recovery can occur.” Kylin lived with the Berlin Heart for 83 days. In that time span, doctors noted signs of cardiac recovery, and further testing gave doctors the green light to again, operate on Kylin to remove the device. Pearce credits fellow pediatric cardiologist Waldemar F. Carlo, M.D., who was the first to see hints of Kylin’s recovery. “He was the strongest advocate for us to explore whether her degree of recovery was enough for her to be off the device,” said Pearce, adding Kylin’s echocardiogram and catheterization data yielded positive results. “We followed

the protocol of the Berlin Heart Clinical Support Team. We were in daily communication with the team from the moment we considered weaning her off. “She has continued to show us normal cardiac function. We removed her from the transplant list because she had improved so much. We’re following her closely, but our hope is she won’t require a heart transplant,” Pearce said. And much to Harris’ delight and relief, her baby girl did make it through. Kylin is her old self again, she says, smiling from ear to ear. “When Kylin was in the hospital, she wouldn’t smile. She felt miserable,” Harris said. “But now her personality is back. She’s been grinning ever since we left.”

Kylin lived with the Berlin Heart for 83 days. Since being weaned off the device, “she has continued to show us normal cardiac function,” says her pediatric cardiologist F. Bennett Pearce, M.D.

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