Jimmy Kimmel Shares Health Update After 7-Year-Old Son's Third Heart Surgery
TV host Jimmy Kimmel (L) and wife screenwriter Molly McNearney arrive for the 75th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Jimmy Kimmel's youngest child, son Billy, is recovering after his third open-heart surgery in his short seven years.
The television personality took to Instagram on Memorial Day, May 27, to share that the boy had undergone what they hoped to be his final procedure over the weekend, posting a photo of the elementary student smiling in his hospital bed, covered in a tiger-themed pediatric gown, while hooked up to a blood pressure cuff and several IV ports.
"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," Kimmel wrote, crediting his "brilliant surgeon Vaughn Starnes" and "cardiologist Tim Casarez," along with the rest of his care team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for "[coming] through for us with immeasurable kindness and expertise."
He called it "a humbling experience" to walk through the hospital and meet
parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain, and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them..."
Billy, who Kimmel shares with wife Molly McNearney, was born with Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia, a rare congenital heart defect that involves multiple heart abnormalities, according to Boston Children's Hospital.
He underwent his first heart surgery shortly after birth, leading the comedian to urge his followers to advocate for healthcare to their representatives ahead of the Senate's 2017 vote on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
"We hope you never need CHLA, but if you do - know that they help families regardless of their ability to pay," he continued in his most recent post, "generous donations from companies like Disney," which he said he's "proud to work for," and contributions from other "generous people," whom he also thanked for praying and sending "positive energy" their way.
Kimmel has supported CHLA throughout Billy's life, donating all of the proceeds from his children's book to it and other children's hospitals around the country, and called on anyone who felt moved to support the hospital or others near them, too.
"Nothing matters more than taking care of each other. With love and gratitude, Jimmy," he signed off.
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