Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said his 7-year-old son underwent open heart surgery for the third time.
"This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery," Kimmel wrote Monday on Instagram. "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 praised Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where his son Billy was treated.
"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," Kimmel wrote. "We hope you never need CHLA, but if you do — know that they help families regardless of their ability to pay, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act (another salute to the late Senator John McCain), generous donations from companies like Disney, which I am proud to work for and especially from generous people like you."
Kimmel also thanked "loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby" as well as his family.
"Thank you to my wife Molly for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be and Billy, you are the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know," he added. "There are so many parents and children who aren't fortunate enough to go home after five days."
In 2017, Kimmel brought Billy onto the set of his show shortly after his son underwent his second heart surgery.
Billy was born with a congenital heart disease and had emergency open-heart surgery when he was 3 days old, with a second surgery scheduled for several months later.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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