
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990                   TAG: 9004230283
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

BRAIN-DEAD INFANT GIVES LIFE TO TWIN

Timothy and Paula Whisman thought their hands would be full with two demanding infants by now. Instead, their arms are aching to hold one newborn daughter, who clings to life because of her twin brother's heart.

Alison Page Whisman was born April 10 with a fatal heart condition. Her brother, Tyler, was born brain-dead minutes later. Doctors saved the girl's life by giving her Tyler's heart in what they believe is the first heart transplant between infant twins.

"We just want to have her where we can hold her and feed her and all those things that you do with a baby," Paula Whisman said. "I just want to get her where I can have some snugglies."

Page - as her parents call her - is in the newborn intensive care unit at Riley Hospital for Children. She is hooked to a heart-lung monitor.

Dr. Randall Caldwell, medical director of the Riley pediatric cardiac transplantation program, said Page had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fatal congenital abnormality that occurs in about one in 6,000 births.

Without help, infants with the condition die within 15 days. Drugs can forestall death for about 45 days. Researchers don't know what causes the condition, which develops about four to nine weeks after conception.

The Whismans have been told that if Page continues improving they can take her home within three weeks. For now, they make the hour-long commute daily from their home in Cicero, Ind., about 20 miles from Indianapolis, to visit Page.

"It's limited the time we can spend with her. She was really alert today and her eyes were bright. She knows when her lullabies were playing," Paula Whisman said.

The twins were artificially conceived in August because the Whismans had been unable to conceive on their own.

Page was born one minute before Tyler. He was born brain dead, asphyxiated in the womb just before birth, doctors said. Page appeared strong at delivery, but doctors discovered the heart defect within 12 hours.

The Whismans had the idea for a transplant.

"It was just a passing thing. I made the comment that wouldn't it be amazing if it was up to Tyler to save his sister's life," said Paula Whisman, 40.

by CNB