6-Year-Old Boy Finally Receives Heart Transplant After Waiting 4 Long Years on List

It was a long road for 6-year-old Carlos Rolon, but in the end, the moment that he and his parents were hoping for finally arrived.

Carlos was born with a rare condition called unbalanced atrioventricular canal defect, which causes blood to move around freely amongst the heart’s four chambers, according to Boston Children’s Hospital. Normally, a properly divided heart will keep blood from the lungs from mixing with blood from the body. The condition can lead to serious heart and lung problems, the hospital said.

By the time he was two years old, Carlos had already undergone four heart surgeries, CNN reported. In 2016, he was placed on the heart transplant list.

While he had been able to live a normal life for a few years, things changed last year when his condition worsened, which left Carlos in the hospital since the end of August.

But earlier this month on April 2, doctors approached the family with the life-changing news that was years in the making.

“ came up and told me he had ,” Carlos’ mother, Sheena Cossette, told CNN.

“I think that was the biggest shock for me like, wow,” she added. “It almost was so unreal.”

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Carlos went into surgery the next day, and Cossette immediately saw a difference in her son’s condition when he returned from the operating room. Before going into surgery, Carlos’ skin had been bluish-gray.

“My first reaction was his color,” Cossette recalled. “When I looked at him, his color was amazing,.”

With his new heart, Carlos’ breathing improved and his oxygen levels reached normal levels.

“That’s when I knew it was real,” Cossette said of the special moment.

Carlos is currently “doing great,” and Cossette is endlessly grateful for the family who donated the life-saving organ to her son.

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“As I watched his chest rise, my heart got heavy,” Cossette wrote on a post to Facebook on April 4. “God bless the family who chose to donate this precious gift of life to my baby boy.”

About 20 people a day die awaiting organ transplants, according to the American Transplant Foundation, and there are over 114,000 people currently on the waiting list to receive a life-saving organ. One donor can save up to eight lives, the foundation says, and can save or enhance the lives of a hundred others.

While Carlos won’t be going home right away, and he’ll have to be quarantined to be protected from coronavirus once there. But he’ll have a new lease on life ahead of him.

“We will forever be grateful for the selfless act, for the family who saved our son’s life,” Cossette told Inside Edition. “Always have faith, because miracles do happen.”