Emiliano was born in June 2018. His delivery went beautifully, and he peacefully slept through our first night together. What we didn’t realize, however, was that he was sleeping so soundly because his tiny heart was working overtime just to keep him alive.
The next day, during his discharge exam, the pediatrician mentioned hearing a heart murmur. He told us it might be “something or nothing” — and that if he didn’t come back, it was good news. But he did come back, and this time, he brought a cardiologist. After performing an echocardiogram, they discovered that the left side of Emiliano’s heart was abnormally small. He was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) — a severe congenital heart defect that often requires immediate intervention.
Because our hospital wasn’t equipped to handle his condition, Emiliano had to be life-flighted to a specialized center — whichever could take him first between Boston or Houston. Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston accepted him, and he was flown there the next morning. Two weeks later, he underwent his first open-heart surgery. Two more surgeries followed at ages four months and four years to reconstruct his heart.
Despite these procedures, Emiliano’s heart continued to struggle, and in May 2023, he was placed on the heart transplant list. He celebrated his 5th birthday in the hospital and, just two months later, in July 2023, he received the ultimate gift — a new heart. His transplant was made possible thanks to a groundbreaking advancement that began only that May, allowing ABO-incompatible organ transplants in children over 12 months. In other words, Emiliano’s donor’s blood type didn’t have to match his — a miracle of modern medicine.
Today, Emiliano is a thriving first grader at Cambridge Elementary, full of energy, curiosity, and joy. Our family is endlessly grateful for the incredible progress in pediatric cardiology and transplantation research — advancements that, just a few decades ago, didn’t exist. Before the 1980s, children with HLHS rarely survived. Because of medical innovation, dedicated doctors, and the generosity of donors, Emiliano now has the chance to live the full, beautiful life he deserves.
