A Job Not For the Faint Hearted

“On the day she transplanted the heart of a 6-month-old infant, Dr. Maureen McKiernan awoke, as always, to a 4:30 alarm. In the dim light of her apartment, she moved through her morning routine: a spin on her rowing machine, some mat Pilates, a hot shower, the usual breakfast of yogurt and granola. It was a practical meal — one she could eat half standing, spoon in one hand, phone in the other, scrolling through her upcoming cases. After breakfast, she took the A train to New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in northern Manhattan. There, in a thicket of acronyms and surgical jargon, Dr. McKiernan typed up the 16-point procedure she would use to save Baby Luna, whose new heart would be flown in that night. Step 9: Plane lands —> cross-clamp, cardiectomy.” NYT (Gift Article): 90 Minutes to Give Baby Luna a New Heart. “After eight years of training, Dr. Maureen McKiernan made her debut as the lead surgeon on an infant heart transplant — an operation on the edge of what’s possible.”