A three-month-old baby girl with connections to the Ottawa area has a new heart after spending months in hospital waiting for a transplant.
The parents of baby Lillian O'Connor, who has been waiting for a new heart since she was born, said they're relieved their daughter is getting a new chance at life.
Kevin O'Connor and Melanie Bernard said they are forever indebted to the infant whose death means Lillian will get a chance to be healthy.
"Lily has lost another little one who will forever be near and dear to her heart. R.I.P.," Lillian's mother Melanie wrote on her Facebook page.
Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto said Lillian's six-hour surgery was a success.
"Lillian is doing very well since receiving a new heart," Dr. Seema Mital, staff transplant cardiologist and associate scientist, said in a news release from the hospital.
Last month, residents in Embrun gathered to help raise money for Lillian's parents, who grew up in the area.
Baby Lillian was in the news in April when she was supposed to get the heart of baby Kaylee Vitelli, who has a rare brain disease known as Joubert Syndrome, which causes a condition that makes her stop breathing when she sleeps.
In April, doctors believed Kaylee would die without life support, prompting her parents to ask doctors to give her heart to baby Lillian. However, that was not the case. Kaylee astounded doctors when she was taken off a respirator and started breathing on her own.
Although baby Lillian has a new heart, Kaylee was re-admitted to hospital on Thursday after running a high fever.
With files from The Canadian Press
