Jimmy Kimmel’s Story About His New Baby Is Heartbreaking AND Inspiring
On Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy Kimmel took the time for his monologue to talk about the birth of his new baby, William “Billy” John Kimmel. With the birth of a new baby we usually get tales of how the parents came up with the baby’s name or their epic birth stories. Of course, Kimmel couldn’t help but talk about his least favorite person, Matt Damon, but what really got us is how uplifting and absolutely terrifying his new baby’s first few hours were.
In the monologue, Kimmel reveals that just after his baby was born, a nurse noticed he was purple. It turns out that the baby had a dangerous heart murmur and hole in his heart and needed immediate surgery. Through tears, Kimmel talks about the absolutely terrifying hours after Billy was born, the decision to have open heart surgery, and the fact that because of their nurse, and expert doctors, the baby is doing just fine. But that’s not the end of Kimmel’s story — he continued on, proving why he’s probably got the biggest heart in Hollywood.
Kimmel starts by thanking Congress for voting to put money back into the National Endowment of the Arts, but continues that his greater concern is that the President wants to cut funding for health care. He talks about how before the AHA (AKA Obamacare), kids born with the same heart defect that Billy had would have been denied health insurance because they have a “pre-existing condition,” meaning that they would probably die before their parents could find money for the life-saving surgery they needed after they were born.
“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said. “I think that’s something that whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?” He went on to say that no parent should need to decide if they can afford to save a child’s life, adding, “It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”
He then asked that his fans think positively for all the families that are still in hospital taking care of their babies and went on with the show, talking to snowboarder Shaun White, who, it turns out had the exact same condition as baby Billy.
Have you ever had to have major surgery? Tell us @BritandCo!
(h/t The Daily Beast; photos via Pascal Le Segretain + Vivian Kililea/Getty)