APPLE VALLEY — Dr. Leonard Lee Bailey, the renowned heart surgeon who gained international attention in 1984 by transplanting a baboon’s heart into a Barstow infant known as “Baby Fae,” has died.

The 76-year old Loma Linda University Health surgeon, whose research from the “Baby Fae” surgery spawned human-to-human infant heart transplants and other cardiac treatment breakthroughs, died on Mother’s Day following a battle with cancer, LLUH reported.

Baby Fae lived for 21 days, two weeks longer than any previous inter-species transplant recipient. But the research from Baby Fae’s case paved the way for Bailey and his team to make the world's first human-to-human heart transplant in a child a year later.

Bailey went on to transplant hearts in 376 infants. He became a leading authority on congenital heart surgery and a consultant to physicians across the globe.

Charity Arnold, whose 6-year old daughter, Paisley Mae, was a recipient of Bailey’s pioneering work, told the Daily Press she was heartbroken after hearing that Bailey had died.

“Dr. Bailey was there to sew up Paisley’s chest after she received her temporary artificial Berlin Heart,” said Arnold, who lives in Apple Valley. “He came by every morning to see how she was doing. He was always so happy and all the medical staff was amazed by him.”

Paisley Arnold received a “life-saving” heart transplant at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital on St. Patrick’s Day 2013 after physicians told Rick and Charity Arnold that four-month-old Paisley was missing a major artery and needed a transplant, the family said.

“Before Paisley’s surgery, the medical staff told us that 20 years ago they couldn’t do anything for our daughter,” Arnold said. “Paisley is here today because of Dr. Bailey.”

Over the years, Bailey’s work propelled LLUH to become the world’s leading pediatric heart transplant center, and led to innovations that enable surgeons to repair certain complex congenital heart defects instead of patients having to undergo a transplant, LLUH said.

Bailey served as a distinguished professor of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and of pediatrics at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and surgeon-in-chief at the children’s hospital. He served at LLUH for 42 years.

Bailey’s pioneering and controversial procedure on Baby Fae was one of 1984’s biggest news stories, drawing the daily attention of news networks across the country.

In 1984, Teresa Beauclair of Barstow took her ailing two-day-old daughter, Stephanie, who became known as Baby Fae, home from Barstow Community Hospital on Oct. 16.

The infant, who had been born about two weeks early, had been diagnosed with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, an underdevelopment of the heart's left side. Doctors told Beauclair the diagnosis “always results in death within a few days,” the Barstow Desert Dispatch reported.

"In those days, the advice to parents was to leave the baby here to die, or take it home to die," Bailey recalled in a 2009 interview, LLUH said.

Beauclair decided to take her infant daughter, Stephanie to LLUMC, for the experimental and controversial surgery. On Oct. 26, 1984, Bailey and his surgical team implanted a baboon's heart into the infant.

The baby’s middle name, Fae, was chosen to provide anonymity for her and her mother. Ten years ago, Beauclair revealed her baby’s identity to the public.

The heart procedure sharply divided the medical community. Many supported the groundbreaking surgery while others voiced concern.

Some animal rights groups sent protestors to the university and called the procedure “ghoulish tinkering” with human and animal life, media reports stated.

Richard A. Schaefer, historian with LLUH, said medical center press officers invited Beauclair to attend several news conferences at Randall Amphitheater located on campus. The staff protected Beauclair’s anonymity by providing her a medical lab coat and having her stand nearby with other physicians.

Bailey’s previous research included, “more than 150 transplants in sheep, goats, and baboons, many of them between species.” The first simian-human transplant had been performed in 1964 but the patient died a few hours after his surgery and only a few more were attempted after that, Time reported.

As Baby Fae’s new heart began to beat spontaneously, “ There was absolute awe,” recalled Sandra Nehlsen-Cannarella, a transplantation immunologist working on Fae. “I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room,” the Time article said.

On the evening of Baby Fae’s death, Beauclair told Bailey she didn’t want her daughter’s surgery to have been in vain and pressed him to keep on with his work, as she recalled in the 2009 documentary "tephanie’s Heart."

During a news conference, Bailey fought back tears. "Infants with heart disease yet to be born will someday soon have the opportunity to live, thanks to the courage of this infant and her parents,” he said.

Though widely recognized for transplantations, Bailey's practice consisted of all types of pediatric and infant open-heart surgeries.

Many of his infant heart-transplant patients came back to visit him as teenagers and adults. At least one went on to medical school.

“When we operate on these babies, the hope is that they will live longer than us. It’s nice to know that’s playing out,” Bailey said in 2017 after a 36-year-old former patient visited him. “Often when we start a case we thank the Almighty that He has put us in this position to help and that the outcomes will be according to His will.”

While making rounds with young patients, Bailey would often wear neckties featuring Snoopy or Looney Tunes characters. “It sedates the kids a bit,” he once quipped in an interview. The surgeon was also known to change a baby’s diaper if needed.

“Our colleague and friend, Len Bailey, served this institution and the world beyond with dignity and courage,” said Richard Hart, MD, DrPH, president of LLUH in a press release. “Despite his fame, he was always part of our own faculty family and stood tall in later years as one of our senior statesmen. His humble demeanor and quest for quality exemplified the best of our core values.”

Leonard Lee Bailey was born on Aug. 28, 1942, in Takoma Park, Maryland, and graduated from Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University, in 1964. He later earned an MD from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1969.

It was during a thoracic and cardiovascular surgery residency at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in the 1970s that he saw numerous otherwise healthy babies die from hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a congenital heart defect that defied successful reconstructive heart surgery.

He returned to Loma Linda University in 1976 to join the faculty as an assistant professor at the School of Medicine. Over the next few years, he performed more than 200 experimental transplantations in infant research animals to determine the feasibility of transplantation in young mammals.

Bailey is survived by his two sons. His wife Nancy, a graduate of the Loma Linda University School of Nursing, died on April 7.

A memorial service is being planned for Bailey, with details to be released soon by Loma Linda University Health. Information will also soon be made available on how to make a donation in Bailey’s honor.

Reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227, RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com, Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz