Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Dr Fortuna, Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Loma Linda Children's Hospital. Thank you so much for being with us today. Dr Fortuna.
Dr. Fortuna
Well, thank you so much for inviting me. I am absolutely thrilled about this topic.
Yvette Walker
So let's start off by sharing how long you've been a cardiothoracic surgeon, and have you always practiced at Loma Linda Children's Hospital?
Dr. Fortuna
Yeah, so I actually did part of my training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery here at Loma Linda Children's Hospital, and then went off to do some additional training, and was recently invited to return back, which was a great honor to come back here to such an incredible institution. And again, be a part of providing the services here. So, I've been back here now almost four years since then.
Yvette Walker
You were also recently ranked by U.S., News and World Report as Best Children's Hospital and recognized in the specialties of pediatric nephrology, pediatric neurology and, of course, pediatric cardiology and heart surgery. Tell us about Emiliano Hernandez's heart and the condition that made him a candidate for a breakthrough procedure of a partial heart transplant.
Dr. Fortuna
Yes. So, Emiliano was born with a condition that we call truncus arteriosus, and in that situation, the heart only develops one valve that exits so all the blood out of the heart goes through a single valve. He was absent the second valve. And in his situation, he actually required two open heart surgeries before the age of two. He then went on to have an additional procedure, replacing one of those two valves, and then ended up getting an infection that affected both of the valves. So now we have a 12-year-old, now, 12-year-old boy who has already had two major open heart surgeries, and is in need of having both of the valves once again replaced. This just highlights one of the great challenges that we have in pediatric heart surgery, and that is, when you have a valve in a child that is not properly formed and doesn't work, our options for replacement are very limited. If we put in a mechanical valve, the patient will outgrow it. If we put in a tissue valve that will deteriorate over time and need to be replaced every 10 years or so, but you're setting them up for multiple, multiple re operations. So when we realized that we had another option for Emiliano, that we actually could replace his valves with living, growing tissue valves - The potential is, is that that could last an entire lifetime.
Yvette Walker
Tell us a bit about the team it takes to make this a success before getting in the operating room and in the operating room.
Dr. Fortuna
Sometimes we forget about what's happening, kind of in the background. Not only do we have to identify potential donors, but we have to have discussions with the families, and then we have to organize the whole process so that the organs can be retrieved and that they can be allocated to individuals who will best benefit from having that organ transplant. And we're very fortunate here in Southern California that we have an organ procurement agency, or an OPO, as we call them, which is One Legacy. One Legacy does a phenomenal job of coordinating this whole process from the time that a potential donor is identified. And when we talk about partial heart transplants, for months, we had these discussions with them about, well, we're not doing the whole heart. We're just doing the partial heart. We ask them to develop a parallel process to the whole organ transplant. We don't compete for the same hearts. We use hearts that otherwise would not be able to be used as a whole heart transplant. And after multiple months of putting this together, to be able to see it actually worked, and to be able to go and find a heart that otherwise could not be used, and to bring it back to Loma Linda, pull out those two valves that we need and implant them into our patient as a partial heart transplant - It was just a beautiful thing.
Yvette Walker
It must be amazing to be on the front lines of seeing this transformation. In fact, it's been about a month since Emiliano's partial heart transplant procedure. Tell us about Emiliano today.
Dr. Fortuna
He's just full of life. He loves life, and soon he'll be returning back to school, and this has just had such a huge impact on his life. And to think that he could go forward and never require another open heart surgery, and to be able to offer that to patients is really a great thing.
Yvette Walker
It really is. It's a truly remarkable advancement in medicine and cardiac care. How can our community connect?
Dr. Fortuna
So the Children's Hospital has a website: LLUCh.org, and on there, you'll be able to see a lot of the things that are happening at the Children's Hospital, as well as be able to access the services there.
Yvette Walker
Dr Fortuna, thank you so much for your time and sharing your work today.
Dr. Fortuna
Well, thank you, Yvette. It really has been a privilege to be here, and it's a privilege to take care of children.
Yvette Walker
My guest today has been Dr Fortuna, pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Loma Linda Children's Hospital. Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org, forward slash IE Latino voices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from San Antonio Regional Hospital, Here for Life. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
