15-minute-old newborn gets pacemaker for heart

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The name Jaya in Hindi means victorious.

And little Jaya Maharaj was just that, when she became one of the smallest recipients of a pacemaker when she was just 15 minutes old.

A team of doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital determined the girl born nine weeks premature had only hours to live if they did not perform the surgery.

Jaya, who was diagnosed in the womb with a severe heart ailment, entered the world with a heart rate of 45 beats per minute. A health newborn heartbeat is 120 to 150 beats per minute.

"The only way to save this baby was to deliver the baby right away and then the pacemaker," said Dr. Katsuhide Maeda, the surgeon whose steady hand stitched the pacemaker's electrical leads to Jaya's walnut-sized heart. Stanford announced details of the operation this week.

SF supervisors reject voting ballot measure

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco supervisors have rejected a proposed ballot measure to end ranked-choice voting.

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 on Tuesday against the measure. One of its supporters, Supervisor Mark Farrell, told the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/x9RW6Q) he is now considering an initiative drive to put the measure before voters on the November ballot.

Under ranked-choice voting, if no candidate gets a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate have their votes transferred to their second-choice candidates. If a voter's first and second choices are eliminated, then their third-choice is counted, a process that repeats until one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

Ranked-choice voting kicked in for the first time in a mayoral election in San Francisco last year.

Critics say the system is confusing. Supporters say it avoids costly runoff elections.