Heart Transplant Miracle Story: How A Boy's Death Saved A Girl's Life

A recent tragedy has been turned into a heart transplant miracle story.  When 2-year-old boy William Heard passed away, the toddler's parents decided to donate his heart to 1-year-old girl Ava Martin, saving the girl's life.

According to the report from ABC News, William passed away last Dec. 13 when the boy choked while eating chicken. William was taken to a Nashville children's hospital last Dec.11 where the doctors were able to dislodged the food but the boy still died two days after being placed on life support.

"He was just the greatest kid," Jamie Heard, the mother of William, told ABC News. "He was 100 percent 'boy' all the time, but he had such a sweet demeanor. He loved to love. It's quiet in our house now. He just filled the room with such a joy that's making it difficult for us to be at home."

Learning and trying to accept what happened to their little bundle of joy, Heard and her husband Daniel took the option of having their child's organs donated for the good of others.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, "the primary survey of the donor includes the confirmation of brain death, verification of consent for donation, ABO blood typing, demographics, identification of potential co-morbid conditions (including high risk behavior, substance abuse history, mechanism of death) and the need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (and if so duration from initiation to return of vital signs)".

The boy's heart went to Ava from La Grange, Illinois. "When we were pregnant with Ava, we found out that she was going to have some congenital heart defects," Amie Martin, mother of Ava, said to ABC News during an interview. "She had two open hearts. One when she was 7 days old, to correct an issue with her aorta, and another at 7 months old to help correct septal defects."

The girl underwent a successful heart transplant surgery last Dec. 14 using the heart of William. "It was really cool to know that we were listening to the same heart. It'll be a special moment to hug Ava and know that William was able to provide life for her," the boy's mother told ABC News.