CAPE BOY HOME WITH NEW HEART

Kevin Lossing is young at heart.

The Cape Girardeau teen-ager is 13, but his new heart is only 8 years old.

Lossing turned 13 on May 20 in St. Louis Children's Hospital where he had been waiting since March 21 for a heart transplant.

One month later, on June 20, he received a heart transplant. A week later he was released from the hospital and sent to an outpatient facility.

Saturday, 101 days after he left Cape Girardeau on his medical journey, Lossing came home to a hero's welcome from about 130 friends, family and neighbors.

A block of Amblewood was closed to traffic near his home, and local musicians struck up "Happy Days Are Here Again" as Kevin arrived home with his parents at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Kevin, sporting a red and white Chicago Bulls cap, was helped into a wheelchair in the shade of a tree as family and friends crowded around, greeting him with a rendition of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow."

"I am just very happy to be home," said Kevin as he sat later in the air-conditioned cool of his living room.

He said he was looking forward to home cooking.

Kevin was in the hospital for 99 days. For 92 of those days, he was waiting for a heart transplant.

He has Becker's muscular dystrophy, which caused his heart to weaken and function at only 20 percent of its normal capacity.

His heart was the size of a cantaloupe when it should have been the size of a pear, said family friend Elissa Smith of Cape Girardeau. Smith planned Saturday's celebration.

There were days when it was all he could do to get out of bed. Even with medication and physical therapy, he was physically weak.

Three weeks before surgery, he could only walk 75 feet in the hospital.

But when it came time for the transplant, he has improved to the point he could walk 175 feet, said Smith.

Kevin's parents, Gary and Yvonne, said they never lost faith that their son would get a new heart.

"God answered our prayers," said Yvonne Lossing.

The Lossings are members of the Cape Bible Chapel. Members of their congregation and other local churches had prayed for Kevin.

"He is a very strong boy," said Gary Lossing.

Yvonne Lossing said her son already looks better. His skin used to have a washed-out color to it and he tired easily.

"Every day you can tell he is getting stronger," she said.

Kevin is on anti-rejection medication for his heart. For now, he must go back to the hospital once a week for a checkup. Later, those trips will be reduced to once a year.

Yvonne Lossing said the ordeal underscores how important organ donations are.

On Saturday, she sported a button that said: "Don't Take Your Organs to Heaven, Heaven Knows We Need Them Here."