PHOENIX — Caylyn Otto bought a bracelet for her unborn son, but not for his baptism.

“I pictured it being on an urn or being buried with him,” Otto said. “I never thought he’d get to wear it.”

But now instead of planning his funeral, the Mesa, Ariz., dental assistant can start planning her son’s future. Born nearly seven weeks early, Oliver became one of the youngest heart transplant recipients at Phoenix Children’s Hospital last month. He will need to be hospitalized a few more weeks. But doctors say Oliver, who was due Feb. 20, has been doing remarkably well post-transplant.

Oliver was born Jan. 5 with a heart the size of a 5-year-old child’s with a large left ventricle, Otto said. Dr. John Nigro, the pediatric cardio surgeon who performed the transplant, said the heart was affecting the infant’s lung and kidney development.

To everyone’s surprise, a donor heart became available a few days later. Though Oliver was not yet at the ideal age, the surgical team decided to have him go through the 10-hour procedure.