San Diego ? When Marine Maj. Hal Sellers left for the war in Iraq, there were no guarantees that he would come home, or that his infant son, Dillon, would be there if he did.

The boy was born with an inoperable heart defect and needed a transplant to survive. His father left him with a prayer.

“I told him, ‘Hey, I love you’ and that I wanted him to be here when I came back,” Sellers recalled.

As second-in-command of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion based in Twentynine Palms, Sellers, a 13-year Marine, chose to deploy with his troops about three months ago rather than accept a desk assignment that would have kept him close to his wife and baby as they waited and hoped for a heart to become available.

The decision attracted national media attention as well as some criticism. But on Friday, with now 7-month-old Dillon crying in the background, Sellers said he had no regrets.

“I knew there wasn’t anything I could personally do for Dillon,” said Sellers, 37. “In my own mind, there were things I felt I could do for my fellow Marines.”

While his choice was difficult, he points out that many men and women deployed and missed births, deaths and other important moments with their families. He and his wife also have two older sons, Alex, 8, and Erik, 6.

“Everybody makes sacrifices. But you understand that when you join up,” Sellers said. “Fortunately, everything worked out for the better.”

Doctors said Dillon would have died without the March 12 transplant. Today, he is recovering from the procedure performed at Loma Linda University Medical Center and shows no signs of organ rejection or infection. He and his mother, Betsy, are still staying in an apartment near the hospital in case of an emergency.

Dillon Sellers is shown during a news conference as he was being discharged, April 17, after heart transplant surgery at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital in Loma Linda, Calif. Dillon's father, Maj. Hal Sellers, with the Marines 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, recently returned from the war in Iraq.

Dillon can now roll himself over and lift his head. He’s also making cooing sounds that were impossible before his dad’s deployment because of the constant need to use a respirator.

The child’s time in the hospital has slowed his development slightly. But physical therapy sessions scheduled to begin soon should help that, Sellers said.

The Sellerses don’t know the identity of the child whose heart gave Dillon a second chance, but every day, they say a prayer for that child’s parents.

“We’re incredibly grateful they made the decision they did, that something positive came out of their tragedy,” Sellers said.

Doctors will evaluate Dillon’s progress in the coming week. If everything is going well, he could go home in early June.

“That would be a great Father’s Day present,” Sellers said.