My boss has been looking forward to Dr. Len Bailey’s talk at the Children’s Hospital for weeks. Dr. Bailey was the man who transplanted a baboon’s heart into a baby born with a severe case ofHypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) in 1984.
I vaguely remember the blow up from this procedure; I was about 7 years old. As transplantation immunologists, we see the operation as wasted potential. New born babies have not devolved their immune systems yet, so they can adjust to organ transplants better than other children and must better than adults. Since neonatal organ donations are very rare, using organs from animals is possible solution. Dr. Bailey was approved to do this five times – with volunteers of course. All the bad press, even death threats to the hospital staff, made the NIH ask the good doctor to stop.
Dr. Bailey was a very kind, soft-spoken man. He went on to do more infant heart tranplants, using human donors. I felt very sorry for him. Maybe one day, the public will be willing to accept at this sort of treatment again.
I run into this a lot. PETA members have spit on me while I’ve tried to get to work. Its hard to explain to people that a human life is valued over an animals, that’s why we have survived for so long. Also, no one understands that the people who work with these animals treat them with respect. Dr. Bailey did work tranplanting lamb hearts into goat kids. From his presentation, he seemed just as proud of the transplanted goats that lived into adulthood as he was of the tranplanted children that are now in college.
:smack: :smack: I’m sorry Jahdra. I didn’t see MMP at the end of your thread title. ::slinks off in shame::