Hay River (Mar 06/06) - A Hay River baby has a renewed grasp on life after receiving a new heart last month. Alexander Stainbrook, who is just nine months old, underwent a heart transplant operation on Feb. 5 at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.

Divina and Shayne Stainbrook sit with their nine-month-old son Alexander in an Edmonton hospital on Feb. 19. Alexander underwent heart transplant surgery two weeks prior. - photo courtesy of the Stainbrook family

His mother, Divina Stainbrook, says little Alexander is doing great.

"It's a very happy feeling," she says. "We feel so blessed. It is a miracle."

Stainbrook, who has lived in Hay River for 16 years, says the community helped her family - which also includes husband Shayne and their seven-year-old son Nicholas - get through the ordeal.

"The whole community has been great," she says. "I can't thank them enough for being so supportive."

Alexander was diagnosed with heart problems even before he was born.

Despite various treatments and surgeries, his condition deteriorated, until a heart transplant was the only option.

"For me, it was kind of like the last card we had," Stainbrook says. "Either you win or you lose."

The operation took about five hours to complete, and Stainbrook says it was a difficult wait.

Every time she saw a doctor coming out of the operating room, she says she feared bad news. "Then you tell yourself you can't think like that."

Alexander is still in hospital, but his mother says he could be discharged any time within the next several months but will still have to be in Edmonton for months longer.

"As long as we're home by Christmas I'd be happy," Stainbrook says.

When Stainbrook was four month's pregnant, tests indicated - incorrectly, it turns out - that her unborn child had hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In essence, that is when the left side of the heart is not fully developed.

She says doctors in Yellowknife told her she had a day to decide whether or not to continue with the pregnancy.

"My thought was it's not up to me to end someone's life," she recalls.

However, the thought of delivering a severely ill child who might not live very long was also a heavy burden.

"It was an emotional up and down," she says, noting doctors believed her baby would have about an 80 per cent chance of being cured by surgery.

Alexander was born last May 13 at Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital - Friday the 13th, his mother notes.

Stainbrook says a team was standing by to whisk him away to the University of Alberta Hospital.

"I only had him for 15 minutes," she says.

The newborn was eventually diagnosed as having a criss-cross heart, which Stainbrook describes as a reversal of the arteries. A series of surgeries followed, culminating in major surgery in October to correct the condition and repair holes in the heart. Later, a pacemaker was also implanted.

"That was supposed to be it," Stainbrook says.

Alexander was discharged from hospital on Oct. 28, and the family was back in Hay River by mid-November.

"Everything was going well, but we noticed he was throwing up quite a bit," Stainbrook says.

In early December, Alexander was back in Edmonton for a pacemaker check-up, and Stainbrook made an appointment with a cardiologist.

"When we arrived in Edmonton, he was starting to be restless," she recalls, noting he may have only slept 15 minutes that night.

She took Alexander to emergency early the next morning, and the child ended up in intensive care with a temperature and difficulty breathing. Eventually, he was put on a ventilator.

"Then everything started going down," she says.

Later that day, Alexander was put on life support after he stopped breathing several times.

"I felt like everything just collapsed on me," Stainbrook recalls.

Doctors still don't know what made Alexander take such a turn for the worse.

It was about that time doctors first started mentioning the possibility of a heart transplant.

Alexander was removed from life support after nine days so doctors could try medication, but that failed. On Jan. 25, he was put on the waiting list for a heart transplant, and the family waited 12 days for a heart to become available.

"Each time the phone rings, you jump," Stainbrook says. "It was a long 12 days."