Lincoln Seay, 7 months, who was born with a rare birth defect, is recovering after receiving a heart transplant last week, just days before his parents and doctors feared he would run out of time. But Lincoln’s heart began to fail in October and he was sent back to Portland — and then to Seattle Children’s, which routinely handles the most complicated transplant cases, McMullan said. (YouCaring.com) Alaska parents Rob and Mindy Seay were able to get a life saving heart transplant for their son Lincoln at Seattle Children's Hospital. (YouCaring.com) 
 
 But the surgeon’s determination saved the infant’s life, after opening the baby’s chest early and compressing the heart with his own hands until the new organ arrived. The day before the surgery, Lincoln’s body was purple, but returned to normal after the transplant. “We have a list of patients and he was the one we were most concerned about.” 
 
 Rob and Mindy Seay, the baby’s parents, had been told it could take 90 days for a donor organ to become available. Rob Seay said that with his new heart, Lincoln stays up for hours and no longer is so fatigued that he falls asleep every half hour. “He was right on the edge,” said Dr. D. Michael McMullan, Seattle Children’s surgical director of heart transplantation, who leads the center that performed 21 transplants last year, among the most in the nation. He’ll face challenges as he recovers from surgery and lives with the strong drugs that prevent his immune system from rejecting the heart. After spending more than half his life in hospitals, his parents hope Lincoln continues to grow without complications.
– Lincoln Seay was born July 14 with his heart on the wrong side of his body and immediately went into surgery. By November, doctors told his parents that Lincoln was suffering from end stage heart failure and would have to wait about 90 days to get the new heart he so desperately needed. On Feb. 18, after 89 days, the Alaska couple learned a new heart was on its way at Seattle Children's Hospital. "I think he was about to die on us, (but) right before he fell off the edge, a heart became available," says surgeon Michael McMullan. The drama wasn't over, though. "While they were prepping him for surgery, he coded," writes mom Mindy Seay on a YouCaring page, per the New York Daily News. "His heart stopped." Doctors were able to quickly connect Lincoln to the heart bypass machine that had been set up for the transplant, however. The boy who went into cardiac arrest and turned purple before surgery "woke up with so much energy," Mindy tells ABC News. His dad, Rob Seay, adds, "He was grabbing at my face and pulling my beard." McMullan expects Lincoln will be able to go home in a few months. "I hope he plays football or does whatever he wants to do," he tells the Seattle Times. "He's supposed to live." His new golf-ball-sized heart should last about 20 years, he adds. Nothing is known about the child who donated the heart because of privacy restrictions, but "it had to be a young child," McMullan says. "I will treasure that heart more than I’ve ever treasured any gift," Mindy writes in a blog, per the Times. "I will care for that gift to the very best of my ability and will be sure we always give reverence and respect to the child and the family from which it came."