This Six-Year-Old Was Born with Half a Heart and Just Completed a Children’s Triathalon

There's a couple in New York…and back in 2011, their son Jack was born with half a heart. He has a rare condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, where one side of your heart doesn't develop in the womb. Without surgery, it's fatal. Their doctors actually suggested terminating the pregnancy. But they decided not to do that. So Jack

So Jack had his first heart surgery four days after he was born…another one at four-and-a-half months…and a third open-heart surgery when he was two-and-a-half. Can you imagine?

Now he's six and should be done with surgeries for a while. He might need a heart transplant when he's older but he basically has the life of a normal six-year-old. His doctors want him to be as active as possible. So he plays ice hockey. ALSO he just completed his first children's triathlon last month! It involved swimming the length of a pool riding his bike around a park and running the length of one-and-a-half football fields.

His uncle was a firefighter in New York who died on 9/11. And he completed his first triathlon two days before it happened. So the whole thing is pretty significant to his family.