WASHINGTON — Joseph Greenwood, eating a doughnut and rolling across Capitol Hill in a stroller, isn't your typical lobbyist.
But, then, not many lobbyists have endured a heart transplant by the age of 6.
Joseph — JoJo to his mom and dad — spent most of Wednesday helping his parents urge lawmakers to push for Food and Drug Administration "fast track" approval of a children's heart pump that helped save his life.
The Berlin Heart, made by a German firm, is used widely in Europe. Its manufacturer applied for FDA approval a year ago.
The FDA has granted "compassionate use" permission to use the pump for 89 American children since 2000, but the agency hasn't approved it for general use in the United States. JoJo's parents, Angela and Stephen Greenwood of Florence, S.C., had to wait 10 nerve-wracking days for the FDA exemption.
"I really want them (FDA commissioners) to make it a priority because there is going to be another child down the road who needs it," said Angela Greenwood, JoJo's mother. "They might not have 10 days to wait like Joseph did."
A virus lodged in Joseph's heart last year, causing fainting spells that led doctors to insert a defibrillator in his chest. When his heart failed two months ago, he was rushed to a Florence emergency room and then flown to the Medical University of South Carolina, home to one of the nation's best children's hospitals.
JoJo received a Berlin Heart implant on April 4 in a 10 {-hour operation at Medical University of South Carolina's Children's Hospital in Charleston. The pump kept him alive until he received a donor's heart on April 13, a surgery that lasted nine hours.
The boy must still wear a surgical mask and take medicine to prevent infection.
Joseph met with South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint and with South Carolina Reps. Jim Clyburn and Henry Brown.
Graham and DeMint promised to pursue approval of the Berlin Heart with the FDA.
To each lawmaker, JoJo gave a mini-photo album, titled "From Tee Ball to Transplant," with pictures and a simple test describing his ordeal.
One caption, next to a photo of him holding up a colorful plastic gun, read: "I squirted the doctors and nurses."
Joseph nicknamed the twin pumps at the base of the Berlin Heart "Bob" and "Pumpy."
"I'm very proud of you!" Graham told JoJo. "You're a good man."
Asked whether he was feeling better, Joseph nodded and, pointing to his chest, said: "Because I have a new heart."
The Greenwoods met in a conference room in Graham's suite with an FDA legislative affairs representative, who they said told them they could return to Washington to testify before an FDA panel probing the efficacy of the heart pump.
Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman, said she couldn't provide any information about the device's progress through the regulatory pipeline.
"We have checks and balances in place," Riley said. "For us, it is a constant balancing act between compassion for patients' needs, but also being cautious that people are not damaged in the future because we moved too quickly."
The Greenwoods were among 32 families from across the country who came to Washington for a day of "citizen lobbying" organized by the National Association of Children's Hospitals.
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