Jimmy Kimmel Reveals 7-Year-Old Son Underwent Third Open-Heart Surgery
Jimmy Kimmel is one especially grateful dad.
In a new Instagram post, the late-night comedian reveals that his 7-year-old son Billy underwent his third successful open-heart surgery over Memorial Day Weekend.
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“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,” Kimmel shares. “Once again, Billy’s doctors, led by the brilliant surgeon Vaughn Starnes, cardiologist Tim Casarez and the excellent, hard-working staff, doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners at CHLA… came through for us with immeasurable kindness and expertise.”
Billy Kimmel was born April 21, 2017. Ten days later, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host revealed on air that his newborn son was diagnosed with a rare heart disease and underwent a harrowing round of open-heart surgery. That was followed by a second procedure that same year.
On Dec. 11, 2017, Billy Kimmel made his network TV debut:
In his Instagram post, Kimmel writes that Billy’s third surgery will hopefully be his last. “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 is a humbling experience,” he notes. “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 continues by thanking “those loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby” and “to our family and friends for rallying around us to an almost-ridiculous extent.” He concludes with special shout-outs to his wife, Jimmy Kimmel Live! executive producer/co-head writer Molly McNearney, “for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be,” and their son Billy, “the toughest (and funniest) 7-year-old we know.”
See Kimmel’s Instagram post below:
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