Jimmy Kimmel reveals his son underwent 3rd open-heart surgery: 'The toughest (and funniest) 7-year-old we know'
“We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid.”
Jimmy Kimmel has revealed his 7-year-old son Billy is on the mend after recently undergoing his third open heart surgery.
The late-night host penned a message of gratitude to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles staff who treated his son throughout his stay in an Instagram post on Monday. Kimmel's son was born with a congenital heart defect.
“This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery,” Kimmel wrote alongside a snapshot of his son smiling in a hospital gown. “We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid.”
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The Jimmy Kimmel Live star went on to praise Billy’s surgeon, his cardiologist, and “the excellent, hard-working staff, doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners at CHLA,” who “came through for us with immeasurable kindness and expertise” before and after the surgery.
Still, he noted that “walking around this hospital, meeting parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain, and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them” was a “humbling experience” to witness. He continued, “We hope you never need CHLA, but if you do — know that they help families regardless of their ability to pay, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act (another salute to the late Senator John McCain), generous donations from companies like Disney, which I am proud to work for, and especially from generous people like you.”
Kimmel also thanked all of the “loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby,” his family and friends, wife Molly, and his son, writing, “Billy, you are the toughest (and funniest) 7-year-old we know.”
He concluded his message by encouraging his followers to send love, support, and prayers to families with children who are going through their own health battles and to donate to Children's Hospital Los Angeles or their own local children’s hospital. He added, “Nothing matters more than taking care of each other.”
Billy was born with Tetralogy of Fallot with VSD, a congenital heart defect that required him to undergo open-heart surgery when he was only three days old. It is a condition that he continues to receive treatment for to this day.
At the time of his birth, Kimmel gave an emotional, impassioned monologue on his show encouraging viewers to support U.S. healthcare reform. "I saw a lot of families there, and no parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life," he said through tears. "It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”
Last month, he shared a series of Instagram posts in which he asked his followers to donate $7 to Children's Hospital Los Angeles in honor of Billy's 7th birthday, writing, “Billy turns 7 today and is doing great thanks to the doctors, nurses, therapists and staff at @ChildrensLA & @CedarsSinai.”
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