A month after revealing his 7-year-old son Billy has undergone a successful third open heart surgery, late night show host Jimmy Kimmel is sharing an update.
While talking with Entertainment Tonight, Kimmel admitted that Billy’s recovery has been crazy. “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,” Kimmel continued, adding that Billy has shown so much resilience.
“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.”
As Kimmel shared on Instagram in May, “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.”
In the lengthy post, Kimmel praised Billy’s team of doctors and nurses who worked on Billy during his hospital stay before describing what it’s like being inside a children’s hospital. “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.”
At birth, Billy was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Tetralogy of Fallot is a rare heart condition that is present at birth. A baby born with the condition has four different heart problems.”
Billy underwent his first open heart surgery at just three days old.