Each year, approximately 40,000 babies are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect — that’s one child every 15 minutes.
Channel 11′s Susan Koeppen introduces us to a local boy born with half a heart who keeps beating the odds. His doctors call him a miracle.
Luka McDonald wasn’t supposed to make it to 12. If he made it to five, he’d be lucky, said doctors who asked his mother if she wanted to terminate her pregnancy after a serious heart defect was detected in the womb.
“They promised me that he would be very small,” Ashley Fazzino said. “He wouldn’t be able to run or play or do much of anything.”
Fazzino chose to give Luka a fighting chance. After he was born, he was taken immediately to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
At six days old, he had his first open heart surgery. And by two and a half, he had two more.
“Luka’s is the most, one of the most severe types of congenital heart disease,” said Kirsten Rose-Felker, a transplant cardiologist at UPMC Children’s.
Heart defects affect 1% of all live births in the United States.
Luka was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which means the left side of his heart did not develop.
“And the left side is the side that’s responsible for pumping all the oxygen-rich blood that comes from our lungs out to our body,” Rose-Felker said.
After multiple surgeries and years of trying different medications, Luka was struggling.
“He was always very blue, he was always very slow, he didn’t have any endurance or energy,” Fazzino said.
Luka needed a heart transplant. And on Jan. 11, 2024, just after 3 a.m., Fazzino got the call she had been waiting for — they had a heart for Luka.
The donor, a 9-year-old boy from Kansas, gave Luka a chance to beat the odds.
“It’s a miracle, it’s incredible,” Fazzino said. “I was thankful for any time that I was given with him. I can’t imagine life without him.”
One year after that heart transplant, we got to meet Luka, a now 12-year-old who loves video games and telling jokes. The little boy who couldn’t run or play sports is now riding bikes, skateboarding, ziplining and going to school like all other kids.
Fazzino remains grateful for that life-saving heart donation.
“If it weren’t for families like his donor family, he wouldn’t be here,” she said. “He’s 100% better than he was before. He’s a completely different kid, and I can’t thank his donor family enough for what they did for us.”
More than 100 people at UPMC Children’s Hospital were involved in Luka’s heart transplant, which should last him into adulthood.
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