One Donor Heart Saved 3 Young Girls Through ‘Groundbreaking’ Surgery, Grateful Dad Calls It a 'Blessing'

Three young girls were able to get their health back on track thanks to one new heart and a “groundbreaking” surgery.

Journi, 11, was dealing with constant stomach pain at the end of 2024 that led to her being hospitalized with a life-changing diagnosis.

“Her symptoms became full throttle to the point that she passed out and her eyes rolled in the back of her head,” her mother Rachel Kinsey told the Today Show. “That’s when [doctors] were like, ‘We need to test other organs.’”

Less than an hour later, Kinsey learned that Journi was in heart failure. Her heart was only working at 12% and she needed a transplant. “She was pretty much plugged [into] every machine,” she said of her daughter.

Journi was admitted to Duke Children’s Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and placed on a device to help pump her heart while she awaited a donor heart. Two and a half weeks later, she learned that a heart was available.

“We got a call pretty much in the middle of the night,” Kinsey said. “One of the best phone calls you can receive, in all honesty.”

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Along with the news of her receiving a donor heart for the transplant, doctors told Journi and her mother that the valves from her heart could potentially help others. Doctors believed that after Journi received her new transplanted heart, the valves from her own heart could help two other girls, Margaret and Kensley, who were also hospitalized.

“At first, I was confused because I thought once the heart is bad, the entirety of it is bad,” Kinsey told the outlet. “But once she explained to us that they can use pieces to help other children, my next question was ‘Where do I sign up?’”

Margaret, 14, was diagnosed with a staph infection that led to endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the inner lining and valves of the heart. Her family was told that her heart’s mitral valve had holes in it and would ultimately fail.

“I was very scared,” she told the outlet. “Instead of having the one hole in my valve I had three, which is three times as bad. And that’s when the doctor said you really need a new valve, there was almost no way they could repair it.”

Additionally, Kensley, 9, was born with a small aortic valve, undergoing heart surgery a few weeks after birth. At 1 month old, she had hers replaced with a pig valve, but doctors warned that it would need replacing as she grew.

Several months ago, Kensley’s health started to suffer and she learned that it was time for either a mechanical valve or a heart transplant.

After Journi and her family agreed, Margaret and Kensley were notified that, as a result of Journi’s donor heart, they would also be able to get their respective life-saving procedures.

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Dr. Joseph Turek and Dr. Douglas Overbey, pediatric heart surgeons at Duke Children’s Hospital, performed the surgeries on the three girls. After replacing Journi’s heart, they performed a living mitral valve transplant on Margaret, the first surgery of its kind.

“It’s incredibly groundbreaking,” Turek told Today. “Think about … the thousands of children that this could help in the future.”

The surgeons then used Journi's donated pulmonary valve to replace Kensley’s.

“It’s just a blessing,” Kensley’s father Kenan Frizzell told the outlet. “It’s more than extraordinary, the whole situation.”

“I’m really grateful,” said Elizabeth Van Bruggen, Margaret’s mom.

“Everything lined up perfectly from another family blessing us (with a donated heart) and we can’t thank them enough,” added Kinsey, Journi’s mother. “Us having a child who’s a universal donor, helping two other families. It couldn’t be more perfect.”

Following their surgeries, all three girls are doing well and excited to get back to their normal lives.

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