(NYT) – After eight years of training, Dr. Maureen McKiernan made her debut as the lead surgeon on an infant heart transplant — an operation on the edge of what’s possible.

After breakfast, she took the A train to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in northern Manhattan. There, in a thicket of acronyms and surgical jargon, Dr. McKiernan typed up the 16-point procedure she would use to save Baby Luna, whose new heart would be flown in that night.

Step 9: Plane lands —> cross-clamp, cardiectomy

They would keep Luna alive with a mechanical pump as they cut her heart out. When the donor heart arrived, Dr. McKiernan would have 90 minutes to get it beating inside her. (Read More)