Facing death, a young man finds his `perfect match'.Byline: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? By Bob Welch There are a number of famous people of this name including:
Editor's Note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : "Where Are They Now?" updates readers on newsmakers from the past. Have ideas? Bob Welch is at 338-2354 and at bob.welch@registerguard.com. THEN: Last March Brandon Burton was the first subject for this new weekly series. He's the former Churchill High student who, in 2005, contracted a life-threatening virus in Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. . He was only able to return to the states when a Eugene doctor, Larry Dunlap, volunteered to fly to Hong Kong and return with him. When we touched base with him in March, he was slowly recovering - and yet facing the possibility of needing a heart transplant heart transplant Procedure to remove a diseased heart and replace it with a healthy one from a legally dead donor. The first was performed in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard. . NOW: Burton, 21, just had that heart transplant - and is doing well. It happened Nov. 24, about six weeks after he'd been admitted to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland after the right side of his heart began shutting down. Doctors put him on a list for a donor's heart. "We were told it could be up to six months," says Brandon's father, Paul. Instead, word arrived 12 days later that a heart - "a perfect match," says Paul - was available. "(Brandon) called us that Sunday morning Sunday Morning may refer to:
The surgery had some scary moments; Brandon's system was so used to a minimal flow of blood that, initially, it couldn't absorb the new volume. "He lost a lot of blood. But the next morning, after the surgery, his cheeks were rosy again for the first time since he left for Hong Kong. His arms were no longer this purplish color. I just started bawling." Brandon's "ejection fraction ejection fraction n. The blood present in the ventricle at the end of diastole and expelled during the contraction of the heart. Ejection fraction " - the blood expelled during the heart's contraction - had gone from a dangerously low 11 percent in Hong Kong to a fairly normal 75 percent. "This smile came over his face. It was like the clouds had parted." Though the skies aren't totally clear - the body could still reject the heart - Paul says what he saw on his son's face was relief. "For now, the scary part is over. We're feeling very positive. And totally supported. We had 20 people waiting with us in the ICU ICU intensive care unit. ICU abbr. intensive care unit ICU see intensive care unit. ICU ." |
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