Five year old Ari Schultz was diagnosed with a congestive heart failure which meant he needed to get a new heart in order to live a normal life—unconnected from tubes and machines.
Ari, who’s had approximately 20 surgeries and has lived in and out of the hospital for the past 5 years, has been on the waiting list for a new heart for several months now.
However, after 211 days, Ari and his family finally received some good news. So his parents decided to film him while breaking the wonderful news to the little boy. Watch his heartwarming reaction below:
“I was talking to the doctors a few minutes ago, and they said that, you know how they’ve been looking for a heart for a long time, I think they found one,” his dad Mike Schultz was heard saying.
“They found one?” Eli replies with a huge smile on his face.
Ari, who was understandably worried about getting an IV and getting ‘poked,’ was told he was going to be given an anesthesia so he wouldn’t remember it.
“What’s an anesthesia?” he asks, which can be heard on the full version of the video.
When told that anesthesia will make him forget things, the huge Red Sox fan worriedly asks, “It means I won’t remember when we play baseball anymore?”
“No, you’ll remember after once you wake up,” his mom reassures him.
Ari’s parents Mike and Erica Schultz reported on their blog Echo of Hope that Ari’s new heart started beating in his chest spontaneously at exactly 11:32PM on March 3. Here he was 9 days after his surgery.
He’s been getting a little better everyday but he still has a long road ahead of him. It’s also been quite a challenge for his family – physically, emotionally, and financially – and so a GoFundMe page has been set up for those who’d like to send help to cover Ari’s medical expenses.
Feel better soon, little big guy!