(NewsNation) — A viral video showed 6-year-old John-Henry Lee’s announcement that he is getting a new donor heart. Now, his family is thanking his donor’s family and looking forward to John-Henry’s recovery.
John-Henry was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, where one side of the heart doesn’t develop correctly. He was just 5 days old when he had his first open-heart surgery and eventually began experiencing heart failure.
John-Henry was on the heart transplant list for six months before matching with a donor heart.
His mother, Sarah Lee, said she was stunned when the family got the news.
“I instantly started crying, it’s tears of joy, it’s not tears of sadness,” she said. “You know, you wait so long.”
While John-Henry is home from his heart transplant, he still has a long road ahead of him, as it takes six months to a year to recover from a heart transplant.
Sarah told NewsNation the news also came with some sadness, as it means another family had to make a difficult decision to donate their child’s organs. It was something she had difficulty coming to terms with initially.
“When they first told me he needed a heart transplant, the first thing I thought was, ‘someone else has to lose a child in order for my child to continue life,'” Sarah said.
She said the transplant team helped her accept it and recognize that the donor family’s child will live on within John-Henry.
As for John-Henry, he’s excited about one thing now that he has a new heart: He wants to have fun.
