Baby's heart device is a first

Surgeons at Primary Children's Medical Center have successfully implanted a ventricular assist device in an infant.

Kaidence Stephenson, 8 months, is recuperating following Wednesday's surgery, which was the first use of a VAD at the children's hospital and the first pediatric implantation in the region.

"Wonderful" is how mom Shauntelle Stephenson tearfully described her baby's progress, after weeks of increasingly bad news.

The infant daughter of Shauntelle and Mark Stephenson, Bountiful, developed heart failure for no apparent reasons, then started a dramatic decline that had her listed for a heart transplant three weeks ago. Late last week, it was clear that the baby girl was unlikely to live for a transplant, and her medical team applied for "compassionate use" of the Berlin Heart, which is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The device has taken over the job of the left side of her heart.

The Berlin Heart is still in clinical trials, but it is the only heart-assist device small enough to use in tiny patients like Kaidence. It only took about 72 hours to document the case and get the University of Utah's Institutional Review Board and the FDA to agree to its use for the little girl, who was clearly failing, said Dr. Melanie Everitt, cardiologist and medical director of the Primary Heart Failure Program.

The surgery marks the birth of a long-anticipated pediatric VAD program at Primary, where doctors and nurses have been training and getting ready for about a year, according to Dr. Peter Kouretas, cardiovascular surgeon who implanted Kaidence's VAD. He's also surgical director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program.

Primary now has the only pediatric VAD program in the Intermountain Region.

Although there are several different VADs being developed for children and adolescents, the Berlin Heart is the smallest. Primary doctors are working with the University of Pittsburgh on development of a different VAD that resembles a stack of coins and is entirely implantable, which improves infection rates and durability, but it's only in animal trials now. And Kaidence's situation has been dire.

She was born healthy on Feb. 23, to the delight of her brothers, McCaden, now 6, and Camden, 3. In July, the family took a vacation to celebrate son McCaden's birthday, and virtually everyone in their extended group except Kaidence became ill with apparent food poisoning. But her mom noticed the baby was sweating a lot, and her cry had become increasingly weak.