Elizabeth Craze

Who is Elizabeth Craze?

Elizabeth Craze received a new heart in 1984 at the age of 2 years, 10 months. The operation was performed at Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California by the team of Norman Shumway, one of the early pionerers of heart transplant surgery. Although considered almost conventional today, in the early 1980s heart transplants were anything but routine.

At the time of Elizabeth's procedure, an ethics committee was formed at Stanford to review the advantages and disadvantages of possible surgery for her. It was not known at the time if a donated heart would "continue to grow along with her body." Her family pleaded for the surgery as Elizabeth was gravely ill and weighed only 23 pounds. A decision to proceed was reached by the committee and the donor was a young girl from Utah who had been the victim of a car crash.

Elizabeth had three siblings who died of heart failure in infancy, and she was diagnosed at only 4 months old. Her surviving sibling, older brother Andrew, had a heart transplant at the age of 16. His operation preceded Elizabeth's by one year, and Andrew was instrumental in pleading her case before the ethics committee..

Craze, at the time of the operation and as of 2011, is the youngest known surviving patient to have received a heart transplant. She has had to rely on various medications her whole life with some devastating side effects, including needing a kidney transplant surgery at the age of 15. However, friends and family have noted that to look at Elizabeth now, one would never know of these struggles as she seems very healthy. "Lizzy" has been able to lead a normal life enjoying activities such as playing junior high school volleyball, and attending Whittier College. She was an active member of the Ionian Society, a local sorority, and went on to graduate in 2004. In 2009, Elizabeth was in IT for Facebook in Palo Alto, California, and celebrated the 25th anniversary of her surgery with a trip to Yosemite National Park and a short cruise to Mexico..