With a heart disease at birth, Jimmy Kimmel shared a status update about his son William John’s – also known as Billy, who he shared with wife Molly McNearney – health on Monday, July 8, during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
The now 7-year-old was born on April 21,2017 and at three days old he was sent to have open heart surgery. The news was revealed on the 56-year-old’s show Jimmy Kimmel Live as he gave an emotional speech announcing that a pediatric cardiologist diagnosed him with tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. “Basically, the pulmonary valve was completely blocked and he has a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of his heart,” the tv host shared.
Present day, his son has had his third surgery – in May. Jimmy shared the update via an Instagram post that captioned, “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.”
Since the very first surgery, the TV personality has always been vocal about the immense gratitude he has felt for the medical professionals that have helped with his son’s journey to recovery. “Thanks to those loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby… Please share your love, hearts and prayers with them and if it moves you, support @ChildrensLA or a great children’s hospital near you (@CMNHospitals). Nothing matters more than taking care,” he wrote in his post.
Now that two months have passed by since the last open heart procedure, the father-of-four shared to ET, “Billy’s doing great. He had open-heart surgery; you know he’s got the scars and everything, but he’s just mentally right back where he was which is crazy. Physically, you know, we’re gonna have to be careful with him for a couple of months but he’s doing really well.”
He added to the outlet how he admired how strong children can be, “they’re made of rubber, you know, everybody says that kids are so resilient and the doctors actually explained it to me which I don’t know why it never occurred to me before because they’re still growing.”
