Imagine this: in the most dire and uncertain time of your life, you watch another mom get exactly what you need to make all your child's pain go away.
How do you respond? For Jessica Wilson that answer was simple: with compassion and gratitude.
Jessica Wilson met Keisha Long at the hospital. Both their children needed heart transplants, and soon.
Keisha Long brought her son, 2-year-old KeVon, to the hospital for bronchitis and an ear infection.
"They did a test on his heart and told me it was failing," Keisha said He was moved to Batson Children’s Hospital, the pediatric facility at UMMC. Doctors put KeVon on life support, but things looked grim.
“Nobody told me directly, but I knew that night it was do or die,” Keshia says. “KeVon looked like a corpse.”
Two days later, 5-year-old Jenna Wilson was admitted to the hospital. What looked like a stomach ache was actually a virus attacking her heart.
“I kept asking what could’ve caused this,” Jessica says, “and they said it was probably a virus. It might give one child a runny nose. But with Jenna, it attacked her heart. It was random.”
Both children underwent surgeries to keep them alive, but both children got sicker. They needed new hearts and they needed them fast.
“She didn’t look like my daughter. She was turning colors, and the worst that could happen … that’s the first time it ever entered my mind," Jenna said.
That's when the two moms met in PICU. Though they lived 100 miles away from each other, their children brought them together.
Although frightening, adversity often brings people together: this elderly couple met and fell in love whiled undergoing serious transplants.
“Honestly, it made me feel better to know that I wasn’t the only person in the world going through this with their child,” Keshia says.
See the rest of the story below and SHARE if you're glad Jessica and Keshia were able to support each other.
Two moms, Jessica Wilson and Keisha Long, met in the hospital under the most disheartening of circumstances. Both of their little ones, 5-year-old Jenna and 2-year-old KeVon, needed heart transplants.
Jenna Wilson was admitted to the hospital first, with a stomach ache and fever. Doctors revealed an infection was attacking her heart, which was now only functioning at 6 percent capacity.
Two days later, Kevon was admitted to the hospital. His mom thought he had bronchitis and an ear infection, but it turned out his heart was failing too. As his organs began to shut down, doctors put him on life support. The two mothers bonded for the next two months as they awaited the news: would either of their children get a heart?
“One night I mentioned to the nurse, ‘I just know we’re going to get a call saying they’ve found a heart,'” Jessica told the Clarion-Ledger. “I have no idea why I said it, but I think it was God’s spirit speaking through me. I remember the nurse said, ‘Wouldn’t that be a blessing?'”
A heart did come soon after, but it wasn't for Jenna; it was for KeVon. People asked Jessica if she was jealous that another mother's son was getting exactly what her little girl needed. Her response was absolutely perfect.
“To see this child about to get a heart brought unbelievable joy. I was over the moon happy for them,” said Jessica. “And people have asked me, but not one time did it enter my mind, ‘I wish it was Jenna, instead.’ When you’ve gone through something like this together for almost two months, you’re happy whenever there is great news, whether it’s your child or the other person’s child.”
But there was more news. Just a few hours after KeVon's successful heart surgery, doctors told Jessica that they found a heart for Jenna. “We had just put the heart in KeVon,” says Dr. Aggarwal who conducted the surgery on KeVon. “Suddenly, I get a call that a heart that matches Jenna is available. I honestly couldn’t believe we had found two hearts in less than 24 hours. That just doesn’t happen.”
“I’ve always believed in miracles, but now I’ve seen not just one, but two,” Keshia says.
Two moms, two children, two miracles: one incredible story.
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