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(gentle piano music)
- The day we found out we were having twins,
we found out we were having identical twin boys,
he paused and looked at Ben and I and said,
"Well, what we can see is that Baby A
"has something severely wrong with his heart,
"Baby B has something called duodenal atresia,
"where his tummy and his intestine aren't connected.
"That type of twins has an 85% mortality rate
"before they're even born."
We just kind of stopped and looked at each other
thinking it was the worst April Fool's Day joke ever.
So, that very first moment when we heard
the worst news possible, our family was there.
They've never left, so that was a really hard day.
And so I said, "On a scale of A to Z,
"with A being a good heart and Z being a bad heart,,
"what type of heart does Baby A have?"
And she paused and said, "I think he has a W,
"but I think it's a workable W."
And I never heard W, and in my head went, "X, Y, Z."
I heard "Workable," and workable is
what we always went with.
There was obviously a reason that
God has selected us to have identical twins,
regardless if they had complications or not,
and we were gonna get them into this world,
one way or another.
When he was three and a half, he had his fontan,
and the fontan helps bring more blood flow
from the lower chamber of the heart
to the higher chamber.
His fontan was really complicated.
We almost lost Logan.
- Unfortunately, at that time,
Logan began to develop some lung disease,
and we were unable, because of his lungs,
to completely separate the two circulations,
and we had to leave a hole between
the fontan and his heart, called a fenestration,
and because of that, he remained quite blue
after the operation.
- For a kid to take on what Logan has endured
is pretty undescribable.
Of all of the things that he's gone through,
there's only been one time
that I truly remember him saying,
"How come God decided I should have half a heart?"
- He's just strong and courageous.
He just continues to live life.
We have a strong faith, and we just
continue to pray each and every day
and we just took one day at a time.
- We were designed to have two pumping chambers,
and for those kids that only have one,
we know that at some point
those hearts are going to fail.
- Even before the boys were born,
we knew that at some point
a transplant would be in his future.
The fact of the matter is,
Logan needs to be a normal kid.
We want him to be able to experience the things
that everybody else experiences,
so Logan was placed on the transplant list
officially on June 21st of 2016.
- Just the idea of a transplant,
to be able to do things normally
and not get tired from riding your bike
or going up and down the stairs.
So, we were excited for that idea of
Logan being able to do those things.
And then, the day comes where it becomes a reality,
and it was scary.
- It was definitely scary for Logan.
His brother Owen rose to an occasion that
we would've never been able to do,
and he made him laugh, he made him laugh.
The pilot said he saw us holding hands praying as a family,
and then laughing, and he said,
"I knew at that moment that your family
"was gonna be okay."
So, Logan's transplant was incredible.
This kid walking three days after his transplant.
We got out of the hospital eight days later.
We came home and life went back to normal.
At the end of August, the boys had started school,
the first week of school,
and Logan kinda wasn't acting himself.
They told us that he was in
really serious heart rejection.
He was in pretty deep trouble.
So, as quick as his transplant went,
he ended up being in the hospital for that
for about 20 days.
And it was pretty intense.
- He's strong and brave, and that he has
gotten through all this with pretty much ease.
He hasn't complained about it that much.
Before his transplant, never wanted to leave the house.
He's a lot more active.
He doesn't wanna be home as much.
- I like helping people.
I gained strength around that.
Going through that experience myself was kinda tough,
and just being in the hospital for a long time.
And so we thought, maybe if we did
an organization or something, a nonprofit,
we could help kids in the hospital feel joy.
- The reality is that kids are born every day
with congenital heart defects.
Until we can eradicate congenital heart defects
to begin with, we need research
to keep improving outcomes for kids.
- There really are so few sources of
funding for research in congenital heart disease.
We rely on sources like the American Heart Association
to fund our work.
- Without research funding, we wouldn't be achieving
the survival rates that we are currently,
and that needs to continue to improve.
I think all of our goal is to have
no children die from a congenital heart defect.
- [Natalie] Well, the average length of time for
a transplanted heart is 13 years.
By the time 13 years roles around for Logan
with his new heart that he has now,
I would imagine that that could be
even close to double,
because that's what keeps happening with research.
So, we know that the life that Logan has now
he has because of a really amazing donor,
and it's his heart to live life,
to soar, to thrive, to choose what he wants to do.
♪ Come on, come on, what are we all waiting for? ♪
♪ Come on, come on, this is what we're here for. ♪
♪ Come on, come on, what are we all waiting for? ♪