It’s been over a year since Daniel’s heart transplant and we wanted to place an update in his COTA page. Daniel was transplant a year ago on March 27th, 2018 and for the most part from a physical standpoint had been improving and doing well with his heart. He underwent a heart cath this past Tuesday for biopsies and an angiogram of the new hearts coronaries. On Tuesday the echo and angiogram looked very good and because the cath was later in the day we returned home awaiting the biopsy results. On Wednesday around noon the heart transplant team called requesting that we return Daniel to the hospital ASAP because he was in 2R rejection. Daniel had flu about six weeks before and they believe his immune response to that sickness may have precipitated the rejection. On Thursday we found out that he did not have humoral rejection, which is where the immune system creates an immune response that is specific to the donor heart. He will be treated with high dose IV steroids here at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and then oral steroids at home for three weeks. He will receive another heart biopsy to see if the episode rejection is resolving. He has withdrawn medically from school for the spring and hopes to return in the fall.
