Last weekend, Jimmy Kimmel’s son Billy had what his family and doctors are hoping will be his third and final open heart surgery. Billy, who was born in April 2017, was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with VSD. It was discovered when he was just three days old and required four-day-old Billy to have open heart surgery to save his life. Billy had his second open heart surgery in December 2017. Jimmy and his wife, producer Molly McNearney, have been outspoken over the last seven years, advocating for universal healthcare and continuing to fund CHIP. After Billy’s first surgery, Jimmy raised $1 million for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Billy’s third surgery was to replace one of his heart valves. After the surgery was over, Jimmy posted about it on Instagram to share the family’s good news that the surgery went well. He also once again shouted out the “miracle workers” at CHLA, stressed the importance of the Affordable Care Act, and expressed his gratitude for Billy’s well-being.
Jimmy Kimmel is feeling grateful after his 7-year-old son William “Billy” John successfully underwent his third open-heart surgery.
On Monday, May 27, the late-night show host, 56, shared a photo of his son smiling in a hospital bed, revealing in his Instagram caption that Billy underwent another open-heart surgery over the weekend. Billy, whom Kimmel shares with wife Molly McNearney, was born with a congenital heart disease in 2017.
“This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery. 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,” began Kimmel, who went on to thank all of Billy’s doctors, nurses and other “hard-working” staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“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. 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,” he continued.
Kimmel also thanked the “strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby” as well as their friends and family for “rallying around us to an almost ridiculous extent.”
The comedian then thanked his wife for “being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be,” and his son Billy, whom he called “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 continued. “Please share your love, hearts and prayers with them and if it moves you, support @ChildrensLA (link in bio) or a great children’s hospital near you (@CMNHospitals). Nothing matters more than taking care of each other. With love and gratitude, Jimmy.”
After the first surgery, Jimmy said that the plan was for Billy to have three surgeries. I really hope that this one is his final one! In addition to being such a brave boy, Billy seems like such a sweet, caring child, too. On his seventh birthday last month, Jimmy made another Instagram post with a special request from Billy:
Billy turns 7 today and is doing great thanks to the doctors, nurses, therapists and staff at @ChildrensLA & @CedarsSinai. Billy is asking friends “to give $7 because I’m seven to help kids in the hospital.” (he also wants a spy kit) His goal is “to raise $100 to help sick kids.”
That is such a wonderful thing to do. I’m sure Billy will follow in his father’s footsteps and continue to advocate for better healthcare in America. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but something really does have to give. It’s atrocious that healthcare is often tied to one’s employment, and that people are then subject to different levels and standards of healthcare based on their jobs, economic status, etc. The ACA did a lot of good, such as making it so that you couldn’t be refused a policy based on a pre-existing condition, removing the lifetime maximum, expanding Medicare, eliminating copays for yearly wellness visits, and making contraception free. But, there’s still so much more to be done, and as long as healthcare is for-profit, there always will be.
Here’s the link to for Billy’s CHLA fundraiser. We’re wishing him a smooth, quick recovery, a lifetime of good health, and that he got that spy kit he wanted for his birthday.
Photos via Instagram and credit: JPI Studios / Avalon
What an uplifting story. Wishing the vest for Billy.
All the best to the Kimmel family. 🍀
What a brave and resilient little boy. Glad that Jimmy Kimmel has become an advocate for health care.
Kimmel has spoken of this on his show and all I can say is that no one should go through a child being ill like this. It is heartbreaking and straining. Hope the kiddo recups quickly.
Every time he starts talking about Billy’s health journey, I grab an entire box of Kleenex. I just checked, and they have raised over $75,000 so far! That is very cool, and I applaud Jimmy for using his enormous platform to raise money for sick kids.
Paediatric heart surgeons and their teams are truly angels in human bodies.
A baby’s heart is about the size of a walnut, hence the team must be 100% alert and in sync before they even make the first incision. It’s such a stressful job* – but also rewarding to see a patient make progress.
All the best to Billy and the rest of the Kimmels, and fingers crossed for a 🌊 that may lead to a better health care for all in the US.
* two close friends of our family are heart surgeons, one pediatric, one for grown-ups.
Our twins sons also have CHD and have been through several open heart surgeries. I take whatever chance I can to remind people that without the ACA, they would have maxed out of insurance coverage by the time they were 5 years old. Can you imagine what chronically ill people went through before that law? Cancer patients, infants and young children being told, sorry your benefits are all used up! Sickening that insurance companies cried and waged war against that bill and yet here they are over a decade later STILL raking in record profits!
I think about that all the time. I also have a pre-existing condition and met my deductible for the year by January 13 lol. I think about it all of the time that I’d never get a decent policy and would max out my benefits for life if not for the ACA because I will always have to get different tests to monitor things. I try to tell my parents that when they vote for Republicans, they’re essentially trying to doom me to medical debt and a shorter life span.
This is such a great way of describing it, “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.” Any time your kid needs life-saving surgery you need to place your trust in someone else’s expertise and it’s such a relief when they make it! Congratulations to Billy on his heart and his health and all the best to everyone involved.
💗 🙏
Hugging you with my heart