Fla. Baby Gets World Smallest Pacemaker
Child Will Always Need Pacemaker
POSTED: Tuesday, April 13, 2004
UPDATED: 6:46 am EDT April 14,
2004
Doctors in Tampa, Fla., are giving a newborn baby with holes in his heart a chance at a normal life after installing the world's smallest pacemaker, according to a Local 6 News report.
Kerrick Walker was born with numerous birth defects, including a very slow heart rate, holes in his heart, and a heart positioned on the wrong side of the chest cavity.In an effort to save him, a team of pediatric heart surgeons and specialists at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital placed a pacemaker the size of a quarter inside Kerrick within minutes of his birth.The tiny pacemaker raised Kerrick's heartbeat from only 40 beats per minute to a normal infant's heart rate."We are blessed and we feel blessed that he's able to live and be here, the technology, the surgeons, we've come a long way, a long way," Kerrick's mother Rica Walker said.The baby remains on a ventilator and must undergo several more surgeries to repair his heart.The child will always need a pacemaker but should have a normal, active life, according to the report.
| Video |
Fla. Baby Gets World's Smallest PacemakerKerrick Walker was born with numerous birth defects, including a very slow heart rate, holes in his heart, and a heart positioned on the wrong side of the chest cavity.In an effort to save him, a team of pediatric heart surgeons and specialists at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital placed a pacemaker the size of a quarter inside Kerrick within minutes of his birth.The tiny pacemaker raised Kerrick's heartbeat from only 40 beats per minute to a normal infant's heart rate."We are blessed and we feel blessed that he's able to live and be here, the technology, the surgeons, we've come a long way, a long way," Kerrick's mother Rica Walker said.The baby remains on a ventilator and must undergo several more surgeries to repair his heart.The child will always need a pacemaker but should have a normal, active life, according to the report. Copyright 2005 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com.
All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed.
The two Disney monorail pilots involved in a fatal crash were friends, according to the survivor's wife.
A clerk at a pizzeria cut himself and falsely reported an armed robbery to cover up his drug habit, sheriff's deputies say.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, known on Capitol Hill for aggressively questioning key players in the nation's financial crisis, suffers a "financial disaster" of his own.
Officials investigate the first fatal accident in the 38-year history of Walt Disney World's monorail.
A former Central Florida middle school teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a student is sentenced to five years in jail.
Police in western Michigan say a man fell asleep at the wheel of his parked vehicle and accidentally ran over a tent containing his wife and two young children. (July 9)
A Connecticut family recently spent time with Austin Wuennenberg, the Disney monorail pilot that died in an accident on Sunday.
Thousands flock to a small church in Limerick, Ireland, to pray at the stump of a recently cut tree that many believe looks like the Virgin Mary.
Since Michael Jackson died June 25, fans from around the world have expressed their grief in flowers, balloons, teddy bears, candles, pictures and handwritten notes left throughout the city.
Email Alerts
RSS News Feeds
Mobile
Live Streams
Slideshows
Video
Search
