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LEHI — This Mother's Day will mean a great deal to one Utah mom. It's the anniversary of a special gift that saved her son's life.
On Mother's Day 2010, an infant from Iowa gave Tammy Bowers' baby boy a life altering gift. Now the Lehi mom has turned the experience into a tradition of tribute and service.
A brand new heart is a gift Tammy and her husband, Joe, will never take for granted.
"I always joke with my husband I don't think he could ever beat the present I received Mother's Day 2010," Tammy said. "I don't think he'll ever try."
Related:
Lehi infant receives hospital's first incompatible heart transplant
Surgeons at Primary Children's Medical Center have transplanted Utah's first "incompatible" heart into a three and a half-month-old infant from Lehi. Though the heart was not a match for the boy's blood type, he did not reject it.The couple's son, Landen, was born with an aggressive form of heart disease. When he was just 3 months old, he received an incompatible heart transplant — a heart with a different blood type from his own.
It was the first transplant of that kind for Primary Children's Hospital. The Bowers took the chance anyway.
"At that point, we just knew how sick he was," Tammy said. "We had been waiting for four weeks."
With his stuffed lion by his side, Landen received a donor heart from an Iowa baby about his age who died in a car accident. She too had a stuffed animal — a lamb — which her family sent along with Landen's new heart. The stuffed pair has become a symbol of love, charity and strength for both families.
The first year with Landen's new heart was a little challenging.
"We went to cardiology twice a week for about three to four hours. Lab draws were every few days," Tammy said.
Today, Landen behaves like most 2-year-old boys, often challenging his big sister Koko.
"He runs, he plays, he knows what he wants," Tammy said.
Still, his immune system is not as robust as other kids his age.
"He gets sick quite often, and then also there's other risks," Tammy said. "Eventually, he'll need another heart — hopefully not for a long, long time."
These days, the hospital visits are fewer, but doctors say Landen's heart transplant is not a cure.
"A lot of people thing, ‘Oh, you got the transplant. It's all good.' Which it is, it's great. I mean, he's alive. But it is still a constant worry," Tammy said.
"But he's here with us," she continued. "We have two years and more that we never would've had without (the Iowa baby's family)."
We weren't' ever able to meet our donor little girl, but we get to listen to her heart beat every day.
–Tammy Bowers, mother of transplant recipient
Now, every Mother's Day, Tammy says her family seeks out ways to pay their gift forward.
"The last two years we actually went with the kids and did Build a Bear, and we built a bear and gave it to someone who is in need of comfort," she said.
This year, their gift went to a family in England, whose child also had heart disease but did not receive a transplant in time. The experience, says Tammy, is a fond reminder of how her "brave little lion now has the heart of a tender little lamb."
"We weren't' ever able to meet our donor little girl, but we get to listen to her heart beat every day," Tammy said. "And we have her lamb that was in her arms for three days … she'll forever be part of our family."
