The Bingham Family and Pediatric Heart Transplant

Stacy and Jason Bingham of North Powder, OR , have five wonderful children. Unfortunately, three of their children have faced life-threatening heart problems due to the disease dilated cardiomyopathy.

Megan, Sierra, Hunter, Gage, and Lindsey Bingham with mom Stacy and dad Jason in Lindsey's room at Packard Children's, 1/14/13
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In dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle is enlarged and stretched, causing the heart to become weak and pump inefficiently. As treatment, now-13-year-old Sierra Bingham was the recipient of a heart transplant at Packard Children’s in 2006. Then, in July 2012, 8-year-old sister Lindsey began her wait for a donor heart while being supported by the pioneering Berlin Heart bridge-to-transplant device. And on July 1, the same day Lindsey received her Berlin Heart device, 3-year-old brother Gage’s cardiomyopathy was treated through a surgically implanted pacemaker.
Then, on Valentine’s Day 2013, Lindsey received a donor heart for transplant, the 300th pediatric heart transplant at Packard Children’s and Stanford. In the midst of the excitement surrounding Lindsey’s transplant and recovery, it was determined that sister Sierra’s donor heart was developing damage from antibodies known as antibody-mediated rejection. Sierra is now undergoing additional treatment and therapies to remove and block the antibodies, thus hoping to prevent and possibly reverse further damage to her heart.

The family’s extraordinarily unlikely and emotional medical journey also includes markers for dilated cardiomyopathy in the hearts of other siblings Megan, 10, and Hunter, 5. As of March, 2013, Gage is taking medication and seems to be doing well with his pacemaker. In the meantime, Megan and Hunter are receiving semi-annual checkups.

Megan, Hunter, Jason, Stacy, Gage, Sierra and Lindsey Bingham
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Packard Children’s History of Leadership in Pediatric Heart Transplant

Members of our pediatric heart transplant team performed the world’s first pediatric heart transplant in 1984. Today, our team continues to see unparalleled surgical outcomes, with an average of 15 cardiac transplants annually and 300 successful operations to date.

Our team’s innovation, dedication and family-centered approach play a pivotal role in our on-going growth and success. Despite the high volume and complexity of our patients’ conditions, our patients have among the best one-and five-year survival rates and make up the largest number of long-term post-transplant survivors in the world.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area that performs pediatric heart transplants. Our Children’s Heart Center and cardiovascular intensive care unit team are perennially ranked among the nation’s top 10 in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings.

The Bingham family [Download high resolution]

Learn more

• Information on the Children’s Heart Center at Packard Children’s
• Our pediatric heart transplant survival rates lead the nation 
• What is dilated cardiomyopathy?
• Packard Children’s helped pioneer the Berlin Heart that is supporting Lindsey until transplant
• Diagram of the Berlin Heart ventricular assist device

Organ Donation Information

• Donate Life California
• California Transplant Donor Network
• United Network for Organ Sharing

More information about the Bingham family

• Hearts for Binghams website
• Bend Bulletin story
• NBC News Today Show segment

Children's Heart Center team

• David Rosenthal, MD, director of the pediatric heart failure program
• Daniel Bernstein, MD, pediatric cardiologist
• Stephen Roth, MD, chief of pediatric cardiology and chief of cardiac intensive care
• Olaf Reinhartz, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon
• Katsuhide Maeda, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon
• Recreation Therapy and Child Life
• Chaplaincy Services
• Rehabilitation Services 
• Social Services 

Media Contacts

Robert Dicks
650-497-8364
rdicks@lpch.org

Winter Johnson
650-498-7056
wijohnson@lpch.org