Jimmy Kimmel announced on Monday that his youngest son had successfully undergone open-heart surgery over the Memorial Day weekend at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).
The 56-year-old comedian posted a sweet photo of his seven-year-old son Billy smiling gently while lying in a hospital bed as he shared the health news.
‘This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery,’ Kimmel wrote in his lengthy caption.
‘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,’ he continued.
Kimmel first revealed in 2017 that his then-baby son had undergone his first heart surgery, which spurred him on to advocate for healthcare and insurance reform.
Jimmy Kimmel announced on Monday that his youngest son had successfully undergone open-heart surgery over the Memorial Day weekend at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)
The 56-year-old comedian posted a sweet photo of his seven-year-old son Billy smiling gently while lying in a hospital bed as he shared the health news
Kimmel included praise for ‘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, including, but certainly not limited to Misty, Ann, Sylvia, Dana, Caleigh, Nick, Bekah, Julie, Kenny, Caroline, Lisa, Stephanie, Ellize, Ivy, Pam and Carrie came through for us with immeasurable kindness and expertise.’
The late-night host called it a ‘humbling experience’ to meet other ‘vulnerable’ children and their parents, as well as the ‘miracle workers’ doing their best to ‘save’ the young patients.
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Kimmel made sure to to praise his wife Molly ‘for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be,’ and saluted young Billy as ‘the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know.’
‘There are so many parents and children who aren’t fortunate enough to go home after five days,’ he added. ‘Please share your love, hearts and prayers with them…’
The comedian tipped his hat to the late Senator John McCain, who was the key vote scuttling a bill that would have gutted the Affordable Care Act during the Trump administration.
He also noted that the healthcare law made it ‘largely’ possible for CHLA to accept young patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Kimmel has spoken about his young son’s heart condition in the past, including in an emotional speech in 2017, shortly after Billy was born.
Just three days after Billy was born, Kimmel announced on his show that the little boy would need open-heart surgery for his congenital heart condition, tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia.
The congenital condition is believed to affect around 0.02 to 0.04 percent of the population, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
According to the Institute, tetralogy of Fallot is the most common complex congenital heart disorder.
Kimmel saluted his son Billy as ‘the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know’; they are pictured together in December 2022 in Los Angeles
Kimmel made sure to to praise his wife Molly McNeary ‘for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be,’ and saluted young Billy as ‘the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know.’; pictured with McNeary, Billy and daughter Jane in 2018 in LA
The condition includes a constellation of heart defects, including a narrowing of the pulmonary artery, a defect in the ventricular septal, a misalignment of a blood vessel carrying oxygen-poor blood that sends the blood directly into the aorta instead of toward the lungs, where it can bind with oxygen again, and a thickened right ventricular wall.
The condition is much more severe in children who also have pulmonary atresia.
In those cases, the pulmonary valve, which opens and closes to move blood from the heart to the lungs, is blocked by tissue, though some blood can still get from the heart to the lungs other smaller pathways, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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Babies suffering from the condition will often display visible symptoms including blue or grayish skin from a lack of oxygen. They may also have difficulty breathing or become exhausted easily, and feeding may be difficult.
When revealing his son’s condition, Kimmel explained: ‘Basically, the pulmonary valve was completely blocked and he has a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of his heart.’
During his impassioned speech, he added: ‘If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it should not matter how much money you make.’
But he also spoke on a lighter note about Billy.
‘Poor kid. Not only did he get a bad heart, he got my face,’ he joked.
Kimmel advocated for reforms to lower the cost of health insurance and medical care just as the Republican-controlled congress was debating a bill to repeal the ACA in 2017. The effort was ultimately scuttled by three GOP senators, including McCain.
The late senator from Arizona had remained uncommitted in the days leading up to the vote, but his iconic thumbs down ended the attempt to repeal the ACA.
In May of 2017, after Billy’s first open-heart surgery, Kimmel spoke on his show about how Billy’s heart condition was discovered shortly after his birth.
‘He appeared a normal healthy baby,’ he began. ‘My wife was in bed relaxing, a very attentive nurse at Cedars-Sinai heard a murmur in his heart and noticed he was a bit purple, which is not common.’
‘(The doctors) determined he wasn’t getting enough oxygen in his blood, either in his heart or lungs. They did an x-ray and his lungs were fine, which meant his heart wasn’t. It’s a terrifying thing,’ he continued. ‘They found that Billy was born with a heart disease.’
In addition to Billy they share a nine-year-old daughter Jane, and Kimmel has two adult children — Katie, 32, and Kevin, 30 — from his first marriage to Gina Maddy from 1988 to 2003; seen in 2018 in LA with Billy, Jane, and wife Molly McNeary
Just three days after Billy was born, Kimmel announced on his show that the little boy would need open-heart surgery for his congenital heart condition, tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia; Billy pictured at seven months old in December 2017, after his second surgery
Billy’s third surgery will hopefully be his last. When Kimmel announced his heart condition he advocated for healthcare and insurance reform amid GOP attempts to repeal the ACA
Kimmel’s subsequent updates were positive, and in December 2017, he brought seven-month-old Billy on the show and announced that he had had his second open-heart surgery.
‘Billy is doing great, by the way. He has one more surgery — this is amazing — he had an operation a week ago. They say he’ll probably be on track to win at least a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2036,’ he announced.
Kimmel has been married in 2013 to Molly McNeary, who is an executive producer and co-head writer on his show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
In addition to Billy they share a nine-year-old daughter Jane, and Kimmel has two adult children — Katie, 32, and Kevin, 30 — from his first marriage to Gina Maddy from 1988 to 2003.