New Jersey Boy Comes Close To Second Chance, Still Awaiting Heart, Lung Transplants
SOMERVILLE, N.J. (CBS) -- He is a little boy, with a lifetime of health problems including being born with a congenital heart disease. Riley needs a heart and lung transplant to live.
Eyewitness News has followed Riley's story for two years, from a fundraising benefit where his oxygen supply was never too far away, to now where he is 3-years old and just this past weekend his parents got the phone call they had been waiting a year and seven months for. (see related story)
"The phone rang, they had an organ and that was that," said Carol O'Brien, Riley's mother. "We packed up the car and went to CHOP."
Riley was immediately put on an IV to wait for the heart and lungs to arrive. After 10 hours of waiting, his parents got the news.
"The organs were no longer a good fit for Riley, the condition was not good and we ended up going home from there," said O'Brien.
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This was the closest the family had come to giving Riley a second chance at life.
"It's my job, he's my son and I can't walk away. I have to tell him it's going to be okay, that's what moms do."
Because Riley did not get the transplant, he has to get another catheterization where doctors will go in an reopen his arteries.
"He was have his 18th cardiac cath, which is mind blowing to think this child is 3-years-old and he has had 18 cardiac caths. His risk for death and stroke are through the roof, we have to take the chance now because if we don't buy him the time to get the transplant, he won't make it to the transplant."
While the news was not good for Riley, his family is happy three other children did get the transplants at CHOP the same day.
"Riley will get his turn."
Riley has a full life to live after a childhood that has been stalled.
"If you are ever in a situation and, God forbid, it is your child, just think of the children that can be saved and your child will live on through those children," said O'Brien.
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Reported by Vallerie Levesque, CBS 3
