First mismatched heart recipient keeps beating odds

North Kildonan boy heading to Transplant Games this summer

A North Kildonan boy who underwent the the world’s first mismatched heart transplant 12 years ago keeps proving doubters wrong.

Caleb Schroeder’s case shocked people around the world in 1996 when he was the first infant to successfully receive a heart transplant from a donor with an incompatible blood type.

And he’s still making history by showing people that organ recipients can live healthy and active lives.

To help raise awareness of this fact, the athletic young boy is heading to Windsor, Ont. later this summer to take part in the Transplant Games.

“What keeps on striking us is that he’s just a normal kid out there,” his father, Harry Schroeder, said.

“He’s the kind of kid who throws his backpack down after school and heads out to play basketball or hockey or whatever the sport of the day is.

“We’re always telling him, ‘When your body tells you to stop, then stop. We’re not going to tell you to stop.’ ”

Schroeder was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, meaning the left side of his heart was underdeveloped. The condition is usually fatal if not treated. Some babies can be treated with a series of operations or heart transplants.

When Schroeder was born, on Jan. 20, 1996 in Toronto, he was already on a waiting list for a donor heart.

Cardiologist Dr. Lori West, who was section head of the cardiac transplant program at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) at the time, had conducted research on infants receiving mismatched organs.

So, when a heart became available that was the right size but not the same blood type, she asked the Schroeders if they wanted their son to have the procedure.

After much discussion, Harry said they decided to let the doctors perform the surgery on their three-week-old son.

“To just give your child to someone, let them take their heart out and put in a new one. It was the most intense five hours of my life,” Harry said.

“We said (to Dr. West), ‘If this was your child, what would you do?’ ”

The transplant was successful because researchers found that infants develop a tolerance for mismatched organs.

“In being the first family who did it, we hope it blazed the trail for others,” Harry said. “Somebody had to be first.”

Now almost a teenager, Caleb isn’t boastful in the least about being the first kid in the world to undergo the procedure.

“I don’t really brag about it, but I think it’s interesting to be the first one,” the soft-spoken boy said.

Harry said the Circle of Hearts family support group is sponsoring Schroeder at the Games in Windsor. For more information about the group or to send a donation, call the Variety Children’s Heart Centre at 787-2410.