Florida’s Youngest Lung Recipient Receives Double Lung Transplant At Shands Children’s Hospital

Published: April 26 2002

Category:Research

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—University of Florida surgeons at Shands Transplant Center at UF performed a double-lung transplant on a 3-month-old infant – the youngest patient ever to undergo this surgery in Florida.

Anna Lynn Cowan received her new lungs on April 18 and is listed in goodcondition at Shands Children’s Hospital at UF.

Anna Cowan was born in Naples on Dec. 23, about five weeks premature. Her parents, Jeffrey and Lori Cowan, already considered her a miracle because it had taken two years before successful infertility therapy enabled them to conceive. However, within two weeks after birth, their new infant contracted respiratory syncytial virus or RSV.

RSV attacks the mucous membranes of the respiratory tracts and can clog an infant’s air passages. The virus is especially dangerous in infants like Anna Cowan who have immature lungs. The baby’s condition worsened and she was flown to Shands on March 28.

“We suspect that chronic pneumonitis of infancy was Anna’s diagnosis, which could have been a result of RSV or any other virus affecting her immature lungs,” said Dr. Albert Faro, UF College of Medicine assistant medical director of pediatric lung transplantation. “Infants with chronic pneumonitis have a poor prognosis. Anna did not respond well to treatment and we nearly lost her several times. Her only hope was to receive new lungs.”

Anna Cowan was placed on the national organ waiting list on April 9. Doctors told the Cowans the baby’s future was uncertain. However, donor lungs became available a little more than a week later.

“The fact that we only had to wait nine days is truly miraculous,” said 33-year-old Jeffrey Cowan, a social studies teacher at Oakridge Middle School in Naples.

Three-month-old Anna Cowan weighed only nine pounds when she underwent the nearly seven-hour transplant surgery.

“Anna’s condition was critical at the time of transplant,” said Dr. Edward D. Staples, UF College of Medicine surgical director of lung transplantation. “She required up to 100 percent oxygen and was on the highest ventilator settings. She could not have held on much longer. Technically her transplant went extremely well, although her small size made each stitch more critical. Her new lungs worked well immediately.”

Just over a week after the transplant, Anna Cowan is adjusting to her new lungs. Her parents are staying nearby in the Shands Transplant Housing complex so the transplant team can closely monitor their baby’s progress. Her physicians hope she can return home in approximately 12 to 16 weeks.

“Ultimately we knew Anna was totally in God’s hands, but we also give credit to the wonderful transplant team at Shands,” said 32-year-old Lori Cowan, who taught fifth grade at Lake Park Elementary School before her daughter’s birth. “Although we were nervous and anxious just prior to the transplant, God gave us such an overwhelming peace throughout the surgery.”

Jeffrey Cowan agrees. “On the way to the operating room Anna was alert, smiling and calm. It was almost as if she knew something good were going to happen.”

The United Network for Organ Sharing ranked Shands Transplant Center 11thby overall volume of solid-organ transplants in 2000 (2001 data is pending). Shands’ pediatric lung transplant program currently is the fifth largest in the United States in terms of volume. UF transplant surgeons performed three pediatric lung transplants in 2000 and four in 2001.

National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week is April 21-27. For more information, please visitwww.lifequestfla.org, or call 800-535-GIVE.

Category:Research