LOMA LINDA, Calif., March 13 (UPI) -- The 4-month-old infant son of a Marine Corps major stationed in Kuwait was in stable condition Thursday after receiving a heart transplant at a Southern California hospital.
Dillon Sellers was in critical but stable condition at Loma Linda Medical Center where he had been waiting for a suitable donor heart while his dad, Maj. Hal Sellers, made the hard decision to ship out to the Persian Gulf with his California-based unit.
"I was able to talk to 'dad' and tell him the surgery went well and the recovery was going well," Sellers' wife, Betsy, told reporters at the hospital. "He was really relieved."
The Marines had offered Sellers the opportunity to stay home while his armored reconnaissance battalion headed to Kuwait last month to join the U.S. military build-up in the region. Sellers is the executive officer of the unit based at Twentynine Palms.
The major's decision to leave his wife and children in the middle of a family crisis of such proportions created national headlines, but the Sellers said they agreed that he would be most useful in the field rather than merely waiting at the hospital.
"It was a difficult decision for him, but he felt a deep responsibility to his unit and to the Marines," the always-upbeat Mrs. Sellers told ABC's "Good Morning America" early Thursday.
Mrs. Sellers remained behind, splitting time between Loma Linda and the Twentynine Palms home 140 miles to the east where she and her husband live with their two other sons, ages 6 and 8.
Dillon was born with a damaged heart that could not be corrected by surgery. It took nearly six months to locate a suitable organ with the correct antigen matches for the four-hour surgery that was performed Wednesday night.
The tiny patient was expected to be able to go home in a few weeks.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
