ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>STEVE MILLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Without the operation that put a young baboon's heart into Baby Fae's body, the 14-day-old infant would have died within a few months. So say doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, where the five- hour operation was performed. Baby Fae's condition is listed as critical, a common listing for heart transplant patients after they've undergone their operations.</s>ANDREW HOLTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She shows no signs of rejecting her baboon heart. But Dr. David Hinshaw says if past experience with transplants in adults is any guide, Baby Fae is entering a dangerous period.</s>DR. DAVID HINSHAW, LOMA LINDA UNIV. MED. CTR.: At about seven to 10 days, there's a hump in terms of the rejection, you know, response on the part of the recipient. Whether that will be true in this particular instance, we just don't know.</s>HOLTZ: The doctor stressed they're navigating totally uncharted waters and just can't predict Baby Fae's future.</s>BRIAN JENKINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When she received a baboon's heart, the infant known as Baby Fae suddenly became the object of a huge medical and moral controversy. When she died 20 days later, she became the object of worldwide mourning and disappointment.</s>DR. OLGA JONASSON, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: I think what we have learned is that it is possible to do a cardiac transplant in a baby successfully. And we've also learned, I think, to our surprise, that the baboon heart worked as long as it did, which gives us the time to find a better replacement.
CNN 20: Baby Fae Receives Baboon Heart, October 26, 1984