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An 11-year-old Ohio girl delivered the phone call of a lifetime, as she told her dad she was finally getting the heart transplant she’d been waiting for.
Ava Cooper, who was born in 2014 with several heart defects, underwent her first open-heart surgery at just 6 days old, SWNS reported.
Despite these treatments, her health took a turn in May 2024 when a sinus infection spiraled into heart failure.
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Doctors placed Cooper on the transplant list for a new heart, which seemed to be her only chance of survival, per SWNS.
“Heart transplants are recommended for children who have serious heart problems,” as stated by Johns Hopkins Medicine. “These children won’t be able to live unless their heart is replaced.”
Various health organizations report that the surgery is meant to replace a heart that can’t function as it should.
The healthy organ comes from a donor, typically an adult or child who is critically ill, often because of injury.
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Cooper spent more than 200 days at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital as her family waited anxiously for an update. That moment came in March 2025.
Her mother, Jamie Cooper, received the life-changing news and quickly shared it with the girl’s father, Sean Cooper, who was at home with the couple’s younger daughter.
He answered the phone to hear his little girl say, “Daddy, I’m getting a heart.”
“Oh, my goodness … Oh my goodness, Ava,” her dad said over the video call, his voice welling with emotion, according to SWNS.
The heart transplant took place later that month, performed by pediatric and congenital heart surgeon Hani Najm, M.D.
“I was so excited and couldn’t believe it was actually happening,” Ava Cooper told SWNS regarding the experience.
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After eight long months in the hospital, she was finally strong enough to return home. And for Sean, that phone call remains unforgettable.
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“Hearing Ava say those words, ‘I’m getting a heart,’ was overwhelming,” he said to SWNS.
“After everything she’d been through, we were finally one step closer to coming home for good.”
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