Jimmy Kimmel’s son Billy is recovering from his third open-heart surgery.
The late-night talk show host revealed on Memorial Day that the 7-year-old needed a new valve, which his team of surgeons successfully replaced at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
“We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid,” Kimmel captioned an Instagram photo of his son smiling in his hospital bed.
“Walking around this hospital, meeting parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them is a humbling experience.”
The comedian, 56, ended his emotional tribute thanking “those loving strangers” who prayed for his and his wife Molly McNearney’s son and their family and friends for “rallying around us to an almost-ridiculous extent.
“Thank you to my wife Molly for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be and Billy, you are the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know,” he concluded.
Kimmel revealed in May 2017 that Billy had been born with a treatable diseased heart and immediately underwent his first surgery.
“The operation was a success,” Kimmel said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “It was the longest three hours of my life — but it was a success.”
Billy underwent a second open-heart surgery in December 2017, and this third operation is supposed to be the final one the young boy should need.
Kimmel and McNearney, 46, also share 9-year-old daughter Jane. The Oscar host is also dad to daughter Katie, 32, and son Kevin, 30, whom he shares with his first wife, Gina Maddy.
