Overview
- After 215 days at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, Ava Cooper learned a matching donor heart was available in March 2025.
- The moment she told her father, captured on video, came after Dr. Madeleine Townsend quietly let Ava share the news herself.
- Surgeon Dr. Hani Najm performed the transplant later that month, which doctors and the family describe as successful.
- Born with multiple congenital heart defects, Cooper had undergone several open-heart surgeries before her health deteriorated in 2024.
- Since discharge, she has celebrated her 11th birthday, resumed activities like swimming, and is getting ready to return to school.