Wednesday, October 24, 2007

By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News

Red Sox fan Andrew Madden was lying in a hospital bed about six weeks ago when he and his doctor began pitching around a seemingly crazy idea.

What if Boston went to the World Series?

And what if the 13-year-old boy got the new heart he needed and was well enough to travel?

Could the two die-hard Sox fans possibly get tickets to Fenway Park and watch their favorite team win another World Series?

"The timing just happened to work out right," said Kristine Guleserian, Andrew's heart surgeon at Children's Medical Center Dallas. "Everything sort of lined up."

So the unlikely pair – a surgeon who grew up in Boston and a kid with a new heart who loves the Sox – appear to be headed to Beantown for Game 2 of the World Series.

Red Sox management has given them prime Fenway seats to Thursday's game – an inside box so Andrew doesn't have to sit out in the cold. The only sticking point Tuesday night was arranging a flight through private donations.

Children's officials said they had several strong leads.

And because Andrew and Dr. Guleserian had to bat a thousand to make the trip, the two are expecting no less from their team.

Andrew, who's from Odessa, was an infant when he was diagnosed with a condition called idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy – an enlargement of the heart that can lead to heart failure.

Although he managed the disease well with medication for the first 12 years of his life – playing for two baseball teams – his condition suddenly deteriorated around his 13th birthday in August. He couldn't catch his breath, he stopped eating, and his feet started to swell.

His baseball coach, James Cotton, remembers Andrew asking to sit out during a game this summer. He wasn't feeling well enough to play.

"That's just not like Andrew," Mr. Cotton said. "He wants to play all the time."

Enlarged heart

His local doctor sent him to Children's, where tests showed that his heart had swollen to twice the size it should have been. The heart was failing, and doctors immediately put him on the transplant list.

That's when Andrew met Dr. Guleserian. She would be the surgeon who would replace his heart if a new one was found.

Dr. Guleserian grew up in the Boston area, and her family has had season tickets at Fenway for years. She moved to Dallas to work at Children's two years ago, but she said her heart remains with the Sox.

Dr. Guleserian said she knew from reading Andrew's medical history that he was a baseball player and fan, but it wasn't until they met that she found out they had a joint love of the Sox.

They bonded instantly, trading stats and discussing strategies. Every time they met, they'd talk about the Red Sox reaching the World Series and the trip they'd like to take to see them and the Green Monster, the nickname for Fenway's leftfield wall.

"Think about who all has played there," said Andrew, tossing off a list of Red Sox greats. "Walking in and seeing the field open up and the crowd going ecstatic."

Baseball talk might seem to come out of left field with Andrew's health in the balance, but Dr. Guleserian said it was a small but necessary diversion from the overwhelming stress of his situation.

"It was a really great thing for all of us to be thinking about," she said.

Andrew had been in the hospital for about three weeks when Dr. Guleserian brought him a gift – a Red Sox cap – and a note that read, "Here's a little something for good luck."

100th transplant

The next day, on Sept. 30, a heart became available and Andrew was rushed into the operating room. He became the 100th patient to receive a heart transplant at Children's.

Now, the formerly pale, skinny kid is rosy-cheeked and 10 pounds heavier. He hadn't gained any weight in the last year, an indication that his heart had been under stress for quite a while.

"Andrew has recovered so quickly," Dr. Guleserian said. "He's a completely normal kid."

And the Sox have also recovered.

They were in a 3-1 hole after Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, but they came back to win a place in the World Series.

Although heart-transplant patients aren't normally allowed to travel just three weeks out of surgery, Dr. Guleserian has "given him some extra special permission to leave town," she said.

After all, his nursemaid on the trip will be a heart surgeon, and she has already called ahead to the children's hospital in Boston to make sure it would be ready for him if needed.

She said she's looking forward to sharing her childhood memories of Fenway with Andrew.

"Hopefully, Andrew will get the chance to meet my family because I've had the amazing opportunity to meet his," she said of his parents.

Andrew tears up when he talks about his love for his doctor and Red Sox buddy. And he paid her the highest compliment possible from a 13-year-old baseball fan:

"She knows baseball."