Girl, 11, Undergoes Heart Transplant After 200 Days in Hospital (Exclusive)

After spending more than 200 days in the hospital awaiting a transplant, Ava Cooper is back home with a new heart — and now, the 11-year-old and her family are opening up about the moment they learned she would undergo the live-saving surgery.

In March 2025, Ava called her dad and said the words she had been waiting to tell him for months: “Daddy, I’m getting a heart.”

“Ava was literally bouncing with joy. She wasn’t a bit nervous the day of her transplant. She walked into the operating room so proud and ready – we all were,” Ava’s mom Jamie Cooper, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“There was a sense of calm and acceptance that day,” she says. “We were so overwhelmed with gratitude for the donor, the medical team and everyone who had been lifting us up for 7 months.” 

According to Cleveland Clinic Children’s, where Ava has been treated since 2024, the elementary school student had her first heart surgery at just six days old due to multiple heart defects, including a ventricular septal defect (or a hole in her heart), her heart’s placement on the opposite side of her chest, her pulmonary valve being obstructed and more.

“After she was born, Ava had to be immediately flown to another hospital. I didn’t even get a chance to spend time with her,” Jamie recalled in a press release.

By the time she was 5, she had undergone four open-heart surgeries and her health seemed to be improving. But last summer, Ava suddenly became ill again, her mother said.

“Ava started getting sick,” Jamie recalled. “I was noticing her waking up with facial swelling, not able to lay flat all the way, having a hard time breathing. Her doctors at the time determined she was in heart failure.”

Ava was quickly hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Children’s in Ohio, and her doctors, including pediatric cardiologists Dr. Gerard Boyle and Dr. Madeleine Townsend, did a complete workup on her “to try and see if there was anything else we could do to save her heart.”

“We realized doing more surgeries on her current heart was not going to make her better for the long term, and our goal is to give her the best long-term quality of life,” Townsend said. “Getting Ava a heart transplant was her best option.”

Thus began a months-long hospital stay for Ava, who — despite needing oxygen, a feeding tube and more while at Cleveland Clinic Children’s — filled her time with art projects and celebrating holidays and birthdays just as she would at home.

Jamie and her husband worked hard to turn Ava’s hospital room into a livable space. They added storage, a mini fridge, and anything else that offered comfort or ease. A Roku stick brought access to all their TV and movie apps, an Alexa let them “jam to music,” and comforters, blankets, and family photos added warmth.  

While the rest of the family came and went, Ava stayed busy with school, finishing 4th grade from the hospital, then continuing remotely at home. 

“Sitting around waiting for your ‘turn’ is exhausting, frustrating and just overall so hard. Any family that has been listed and asked to wait can attest to this,” Jamie admits.

“Waiting is one of the worst parts because it’s so unknown. You plan things all your life and are told to sit and wait. We did all we could for Ava and our family to stay strong and positive while we waited, we made the best of it for sure. “

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One of the most viral moments from Ava’s 200-day hospitalization came in February 2025, when the 11-year-old’s family realized that she would have to miss out on her school’s father-daughter dance.

Not letting her hospital stay stop them, Ava’s family and caregivers decked out her room in decorations and lights so she and her father could have their dance anyway.

“Even though I had to miss the father-daughter dance at my school, this was super magical and cool. I got to dance with my dad to all my favorite songs,” Ava said.

“It’s now one of the best memories I have with Ava, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who came together to make it possible,” her father Sean said of the special moment.

Just one month later in March 2025, Ava and her family realized that her stay at the hospital was coming to a close — doctors had identified a donor heart.

“When we found out Ava was getting a heart…I was immediately in tears. Tears of pure happiness because we had waited so long for this call. My husband and I were both so relieved and not afraid for the next step,” Jamie shares.

“We had been waiting and praying for this moment for 6 months. It was such an amazing time that we will never forget. This news of a new heart meant our family could be whole again, back together and Ava getting a second chance at living.”

Soon after, Ava successfully underwent surgery — and as her heart surgeon Dr. Hani Najm put it, she has “a new lease on life.”

“Suffering from severe heart failure, we knew Ava’s transplant would give her a new lease on life,” he shared. “Innovations in the pediatric transplant field have significantly improved patient outcomes as well as the longevity of transplanted hearts and other organs.”

According to Townsend, Ava only needed one month to recover after being in heart failure for so long, and by April 2025, she was headed home.

“It took Ava, all of us really, about 2 months to really heal emotionally and each day she gets stronger. She chases around her 3-year-old sister, takes our dog Rocky on neighborhood walks and can go to parks, pools etc. We are definitely making up for lost time,” Jamie reveals.

In April and May, Ava relied on a wheelchair or wagon to take breaks, so activities were limited. But over the past few months, her strength steadily returned. Now she runs, jumps, and plays just like any other 11-year-old.

“It truly is amazing,” Jamie says. “She gets to be a kid, and being a ‘normal’ kid is what she wants to be.”

Through every challenge, Ava remained her family’s source of strength. “She has a smile on her face in the scariest of times,” Jamie shares. “She is how we made it out of all of this.” 

From countless surgeries to daily uncertainty, Ava made it through. “We could cheer all we wanted but it was her who did all the fighting,” her mother adds.

Though the family knows nothing about Ava’s donor, they “pray that one day in the future, we get to meet the family.”

The Cooper family hopes Ava’s story offers hope to others in similar situations and sparks more conversation around organ donation. 

“Without organ donation, we would not have Ava,” Jamie says, emphasizing how vital it was to her daughter’s survival. “I hope that families continue to consider organ donation in their darkest of days and some day realize the impact it makes.”