Toronto parents who would like to donate their dying child's heart to another sick baby are hoping red tape doesn't get in the way.
Jason Wallace and Crystal Vitelli have been told their gravely ill daughter Kaylee will soon die. The couple hopes their baby's heart can be given to another child. However, doctors say it's not that simple and certain protocols must be followed.
A baby girl named Lillian was born in Toronto with a congenital heart defect on March 9.
She's been given only weeks to live unless she gets a heart transplant, but under Hospital for Sick Children protocol, an organ must go to the sickest child in the system.
There are also worries Kaylee's heart may not be strong enough to transplant.
As Kaylee grows sicker, the grief-stricken Wallace and Vitelli worry they'll miss their chance to donate her heart, which they would like to see used to save another youngster's life.
"Her brain is so damaged that she won't have good quality of life, that's what they've been preaching to us all along," says Wallace, expressing frustration with what he sees as an inefficient system.
