Today is the 25th anniversary of the first cross-species heart transplant.  Maybe you remember the story in 1984 when baby Fae was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.  The baby whose full name was later revealed to be Stephanie Fae Traphagan, was given the heart of a baboon known as Goober.  A female baboon sacrificed in the hopes of saving the baby and also for the history making aspects as well.  Naturally it was hoped that the baby would be saved but the expectations were that she would not.  Indeed 21 days later baby Fae died because her immature immune system and organs could not "accept" the foreign material that was the living, beating heart of a sacrificial animal.  Permission for the animal organ donation was sought from and granted by the Seventh Day Adventist Church Loma Linda.  A fact I find oddly interesting but have found no explanation of.

 Surgery took all of four hours and was successful, however baby Fae's body could not support the new organ and so an animal was destroyed for naught.  Animal rights groups picketed the hospital where the surgery took place under the hands of Dr. Leonard Bailey.  Fae was the longest survivor of animal organ transplant.

Baby Fae's mother Teresa tells her story in an upcoming movie, still in post production.  I have posted the trailer below.