The Nation - News from May 11, 1986

An infant whose need for a liver transplant caught the interest of Nancy Reagan died during surgery at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Doctors said that 9-month-old Alex Kevin Girard’s condition went into rapid decline after the replacement organ was received, and that surgeons tried to perform a heart-lung bypass in a “desperate attempt” to save him. Mrs. Reagan had telephoned Paul and Ellen Girard to offer support after they made a public appeal for a new liver for their son, but doctors said the organ was received too late and the baby died of cardiac arrest secondary to liver failure.