LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Doctors at Norton Children's Hospital say it was the smallest pacemaker ever implanted in a human and it worked.
The face of Heavenleigh Weilage says it all. The soon-to-be three-year-old is certainly living her best life, though it began on Valentines Day 2022 with a lot of uncertainty.
“She was born at 28 weeks, five days. She has complete heart block,” explained her mother, Becky Weilage.
Heavenleigh became a patient of pediatric cardiologist Dr. Soham Dasgupta at Norton Children’s.
“She was born with congenital heart disease or what we call structural heart disease, where she had holes in between her heart changers but she also had what we call complete congenital heart block which is basically an interruption in the electrical signals of the heart,” Dr. Dasgupta told Spectrum News.
Heavenleigh’s heart rate was so low doctors needed to intervene with a pacemaker but the newborn was so tiny, she weighed only three pounds at birth. They were unsure if a small enough device existed. Within days, Norton Children's doctors found a possible option, but it was a pacemaker that had never been used on a human before.
“So, when Heavenleigh was born, and we saw this might be a potential option for her. We had to get FDA approval pretty quickly, and we had to get emergency use authorization to approve this device for human use,” Dr. Dasgupta said.
When Heavenleigh was just four months old Norton Children's doctors implanted a pacemaker the size of a large pill and it saved her life.
“This was specially engineered for the smallest of children, and in fact, Heavenleigh was the first human that we ever implanted this in the whole world, Dr. Dasgupta said.
In the months since receiving the pacemaker Heavenleigh has grown big enough to “size up,” with a larger device and she’ll require a pacemaker for the rest of her life, according to doctors.
“Incredibly blessed that they could, to help her because she’s already making a difference in the world,” Weilage said. “We’re pretty popular down at the hospital. We go in, everybody knows who we are. ‘Oh, how is she? She’s gotten so big!’” Weilage said.
Heavenleigh’s recovery gives doctors confidence that even the smallest of heart patients can be treated with a tiny pacemaker. Since Heavenleigh’s successful operation, as many 45 similar sized pacemakers have been implanted in children across the country.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the hospital. The error has been corrected. (Jan. 28, 2025)
