PHOTOS BY JOHNNY FARRIS Kernel staff
	LOVE FOR A CHILD Kristin Gullett and Derek Johnson (above) look down at their son, Austin Gullett, during a news conference yesterday about the heart surgery that saved Austin's life. Dr. Robert Mentzer, Jr., (top left) speaks about the intricacies of Austin's heart procedure. Austin was born in his 39th week of labor.

On Oct. 30, UK surgeons performed a rare operation on a Lancaster, Ky., infant whose heart defect was discovered in utero.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Simon Abraham, an assistant professor of surgery at the UK College of Medicine, executed the procedure of the biventricular repair of the aortic atresia on 4-day-old Austin Gullett.

The defect, located by a sonogram 33 weeks into the pregnancy, was first detected by a Danville, Ky., ultrasonographer.

At 36 weeks, Lexington perinatologist Dr. John O'Brien performed an additional sonogram on the mother, Kristin Gullett, which confirmed the heart defect.

At that time, Gullett was referred to UK Hospital to work with Dr. Francis McCaffrey, director of fetal echocardiography at UK Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics.

McCaffrey agreed with the other doctors that the fetus did have the diagnosis of aortic atresia and ventricular septal defect.

"This is a life-threatening type of heart disease," McCaffrey said. "Some families would have liked not to pursue any type of correction after birth.

"Kristin, Derek (infant's father) and their families very bravely decided to push on and we outlined for them the difficulties with the surgery and the potential mortality and the morbidity involved with the surgery. We then coordinated with Dr. Abraham to make everything to go as smoothly and as well as possible after the baby was born."

Austin was in his 39th week after induced labor. Doctors said they held off any type of surgery on the infant until he was strong enough to endure the procedure.

The 6-pound, 1-ounce boy was placed in UK Children's Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit until the surgery.

McCaffrey said Austin was born with no signs of any complications, "which is a typical sign of congenital heart disease."

The doctors agreed the prenatal detection of the heart defect was detrimental to the infant's survival.

"It may have been a couple of days before the problem may have been picked up," O'Brien said. "By that time, Austin would have been critically ill and that may have made the surgery much more risky."

The six-hour surgery included the doctors enlarging the aorta, the main artery leading from the heart. Abraham said the infant's aorta looked like a piece of spaghetti, rather than the normal-sized aorta, which is closer to the size of a finger.

"The reason that (the aorta) is so small is that inside there is a valve which normally allows blood to be pushed out of the heart into it," Abraham said. "There is no valve here, so because there is very little flow during development it just doesn't grow at all.

"He could not have survived without this."