VENTURA : Baby Who Awaited Transplant Dies

Nine-month-old Ana Laura Stewart, who was awaiting a life-saving bone marrow transplant, has died at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

Ana died at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, shortly after her adoptive mother, Mary Stewart of Ventura, was told that the baby was having difficulty breathing.

“The doctor called me and told me Ana was having a hard time,” Stewart said. “I was just getting into my car when they called back and said she had died.”

Stewart, a nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, said Ana had contracted the flu on Friday but was in a happy mood Saturday night. The baby died of respiratory failure.

“She listened to music and played patty-cake,” Stewart said.

Doctors had found a suitable donor through the National Bone Marrow Registry, and the baby was due to receive the bone marrow transplant within six weeks, Stewart said.

Ana was originally scheduled to get a transplant from her biological mother on June 13, but the woman left the county. She is believed to be visiting her family in Mexico, where her father had died, Stewart said.

Graveside funeral services for Ana will be held at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura.