How two youngsters ready for hearts discovered friendship in Chicago
Meet Marshall and Myla. Theirs is a narrative about friendship, hardship, and survival, all made doable as a result of Myla and Marshall had been each sufferers at Lurie Childrens Hospital.
CHICAGO – Lurie Kids’s Hospital is internet hosting a particular radiothon this Thursday, and FOX 32 Chicago is proud to be a sponsor and associate.
We needed to share with you only a small a part of how the proceeds will make a huge impact on the lives of sick youngsters and their households. Sylvia Perez takes us inside the youngsters’s hospital to introduce us to 2 buddies who got here collectively as a result of they each wanted a coronary heart transplant.
Meet Marshall and Myla. Their story is about friendship, hardship, and survival — all made doable as a result of Myla and Marshall had been each sufferers at Lurie Kids’s Hospital.
Regardless of the age distinction, they turned shut buddies—or, as they are saying, BFFs.
Myla was 11 after they met, and Marshall was 6. It was their hearts that introduced them collectively—or relatively, the truth that they each wanted a brand new one.
“We met within the hospital, and at first, our rooms had been subsequent to one another. We began speaking, and we turned buddies,” stated Myla.
“One of many causes we additionally turned BFFs is as a result of on her birthday, I made a card, and the cardboard stated, ‘Would you be my BFF?’” Marshall added.
Myla and Marshall had one thing else in frequent: they had been each born with coronary heart situations that saved them out and in of the hospital till a transplant was the one choice. So, they waited within the hospital for months, collectively, inseparable, having fun with one another’s firm each single day.
“We actually had no buddies besides me and her, and so we went in all places collectively,” Marshall stated.
They first met in April when Myla was admitted to Lurie. Then, in July, three months later, Myla obtained the information that she can be getting her new coronary heart.
It is a day Myla’s mom, Heather, will always remember.
“There is a bizarre feeling of disappointment and happiness on the similar time. You might be joyful for your self and disappointment and regret for the lack of one other household,” Heather stated.
Marshall discovered about the excellent news a short while later.
“Yeah, I used to be completely happy for her and form of unhappy… as a result of I did not get one,” Marshall stated.
“I used to be form of unhappy to go away Marshall, however I additionally actually needed to go get a coronary heart so I may go residence and see my canine,” Myla added.
Marshall nonetheless waits. His docs are optimistic his time will come.
“I’m not simply hopeful, however I’m fairly assured that he’ll get his coronary heart. It’s only a matter of time. And the excellent news is he’s in such good condition for a transplant. He does all of the issues he must do to be a very good transplant candidate whereas he waits,” stated Dr. Phillip Thrush.
However till that new coronary heart comes, Marshall continues to get the love and a focus he wants at Lurie and appears ahead to Myla’s once-a-month checkups when he could be reunited together with his BFF. He sees how nicely Myla is doing and is trying ahead to what a brand new coronary heart will imply for him.
“After I get my coronary heart, I’m going to have tremendous velocity. They’re going to take my DNA, and I’m going to have tremendous velocity,” Marshall stated.
Within the meantime, Myla and Marshall nonetheless have that bond. Their dad and mom turned shut as nicely, related by their youngsters’s coronary heart situations and grateful to haven’t solely one other household to lean on but in addition the assistance of a loving workers at Lurie that they are saying will stay household ceaselessly.
“Myla’s situation was deteriorating, and he or she’s alive due to Lurie’s. I owe my daughter’s life to it,” stated Jeff, Myla’s father.
