All Children's Hospital passes 100 heart transplants

[John Pendygraft | Times]

Anthony, 4, the 100th transplant recipient from All Children's Hospital, gets a kiss from his foster mother, Melody Rodriguez, 47. Kristin Rosenberg, 36, a heart transplant coordinator, is at left.

ST. PETERSBURG -- All Children's Hospital has reached a milestone -- it has performed heart transplants on 100 children, more children than any other hospital in Florida.

Hospital staffers held a news conference today with Anthony, a 4-year-old boy in foster care, who recently received the 100th transplant. Anthony smiled and obediently said "cheese," for the cameras.

All Children's Hospital has been performing heart transplants since 1995. Out of the 100 children who received transplants, 87 went home alive from the hospital and 72 are still alive. All 100 would have died without a new heart, doctors said.

When the medical staff gets to see the children later, running around and playing, "that means the world to all of us," said Dr. Jeff Jacobs, the program's surgical director. 

Although the news conference was scheduled for today, All Children's actually performed its 101st heart transplant this weekend.

-- Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer