11-Year-Old Girl Who Underwent 4 Open-Heart Surgeries By Age 5 Receives Big Breakthrough

An 11-year-old Ohio girl who underwent four open-heart surgeries by age five recently received a life-saving heart transplant.

Ava Cooper spent over 200 days on the transplant list before undergoing the procedure, according to the Cleveland Clinic. She was born with multiple heart defects and had her first surgery when she was just six days old, followed by three more by the time she turned five. She had no symptoms for almost five years, but that changed in the summer of 2024.

“Ava started getting sick. I was noticing her waking up with facial swelling, not able to lay flat all the way, having a hard time breathing. Her doctors at the time determined she was in heart failure,” Cooper’s mom, Jamie Cooper, said.

After a complete workup, doctors determined more surgeries would not benefit Cooper and that she needed a new heart, Dr. Madeleine Townsend said. She was added to the transplant list in September 2024. In March 2025, Cooper and her family received a call that a heart was available, and she underwent transplant surgery at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, according to FOX 8.

Cooper’s dad, Sean Cooper, recalled the moment he learned his daughter would receive a new heart. “When you see your kid going through what she did every day and then that happens, it’s a blessing,” Cooper told FOX 8.

Cooper’s mom said Ava is “getting better” following the surgery. “More and more it’s getting better. Like the further out we get from the transplant, the better she is, the better she looks,” she said.

Despite being in the hospital for an extended period of time, the Coopers provided their daughter with a sense of normalcy, celebrating birthdays and Christmas and having Sunday dinners together, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Ava also had a father-daughter dance at the hospital in February 2025 since she missed the one at her school.

“Even though I had to miss the father-daughter dance at my school, this was super magical and cool. I got to dance with my dad to all my favorite songs,” the 11-year-old said. (RELATED: Person Goes Camping, Comes Back With The Plague, Officials Say)

A donor heart was tracked down less than a month following the father-daughter dance. After she received her new heart in March, Ava spent a month recovering in the hospital. Dr. Townsend her donor heart is functioning well and not showing signs of rejection, though a care team will continue to observe in the days to come.

Jamie said her daughter is here for a purpose. “I know that God has given her this gift to do something amazing,” she told WKYC in May 2025. “I don’t know what that is yet, but I know that she is here for a reason.”