Baby Gets Heart Transplant While Marine Father Is in Persian Gulf

A 4-month-old boy, whose U.S. Marine Corps father shipped out to Kuwait last month with his soldiers, has received a heart transplant at the Loma Linda Medical Center and Children's Hospital.

Dillon Sellers, who has lived in the neonatal intensive care unit at Loma Linda since 10 days after he was born Oct. 19, was reported doing doing well after the surgery and doctors said he could go home in weeks.

His condition had deteriorated in the days before the surgery, and doctors had to resuscitate him twice, according to surgeon Dr. Anees Razzouk. "For Dillon, this comes just at the right time," he said.

Doctors had diagnosed the baby with hypoplastic left heart, a deformity in which the left side of his heart is underdeveloped and unable to circulate blood to his organs.

The child's father, Maj. Hal Sellers, is second-in-command of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. When he was offered a desk job at the Twentynine Palms, California Marine base so that he could stay with his son, Sellers opted to stay with his men rather than substitute a new officer so late in their training.

"So far, so good," Sellers said when he heard of his son's transplant. "They say the first four to five days are pretty critical. Obviously, I'm grateful that he's got an opportunity, but we're not out of the woods yet."

Other Sources: Loma Linda