Roselle boy receives a new heart before 13th birthday

Eduardo Montoya loves a lot of things typical for a 12-year-old boy.

Girls.

"Star Wars."

Airplanes.

Nintendo DS.

Oh, and creating top 10 lists -- mostly of his favorite girls.

But the past seven months have been anything but typical for Eduardo, a seventh-grader at Spring Wood Middle School in Hanover Park.

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Instead of his home in Roselle, Eduardo's been living at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago since September waiting for a heart donor.

He was one of only four pediatric patients among 97 patients in the state waiting for a heart transplant.

"Of course (the doctors) never told me how long we would have to wait," said Eduardo's mother, Claudia Montoya.

In fact, Montoya said her family had planned to bring Eduardo back to his Roselle home in time for his 13th birthday Sunday, a decision that likely would have bumped him down the list and only further prolonged his wait.

"We all just thought, 'Oh, God, please let him get (his heart) in the next couple of weeks,' " she said.

The call finally arrived last weekend.

History of trouble

Eduardo's heart troubles began when he was born.

His heart lacked a pulmonary artery, a condition repaired through three operations by the time he was 2. Doctors implanted a pacemaker two years later to stabilize his heart rhythms.

But it was a second condition Eduardo's doctor, Dolores Vitullo, said wasn't fixed by the operations and led to his placement on the transplant list. His coronary artery, which supplies blood to and from the heart, pumped blood in the opposite direction.

As Eduardo got older, it became much harder to provide sufficient blood flow.

"Sometimes the condition reverses itself," Vitullo said. "The hope was that in time that would happen."

By the time Eduardo turned 10, he was complaining of chest pains from simply walking.

By October 2006, when he was put on the transplant list, Eduardo was suffering pains in his arms that his doctors said were the early symptoms of a heart attack, Claudia said.

The wait

Eduardo stayed home for much of the next year as he waited for a matching donor. But in September, he was admitted to Children's Memorial after complaining of consistent chest pains.

The move also bumped Eduardo to a higher-priority list of heart transplant candidates.

His teachers talked hospital officials into installing a Web camera, through which Eduardo was able to catch up with friends a few times during his stay.

He made a video introducing his classmates to the hospital and to his world.

He got to meet Cubs player Alfonso Soriano and talked Miss Illinois Shanon Lersch into playing a game of "Uno" with him.

But the months of waiting took their toll, and Eduardo wanted to go home.

"He told us he'd rather be home with his family near him than stay here any longer," Claudia said.

So the family decided to keep him in the hospital until his 13th birthday.

When Claudia received a call from the hospital last week, the last thing she expected to hear was that her son had finally received a matching donor.

Family members had gathered at the hospital last Friday to maintain a vigil during the 12-hour operation.

By Thursday, Eduardo seemed to be recovering well. Still, it will be at least another month before he can return home.

But the biggest hurdle is over.

"All his friends are anxious to see him," Claudia said. "He's been here too long."