Oak Park Heights Boy's Heart Transplant Surgery a Success

“We have a heart.”

Those are the four words Kari Ulrich wrote on her son Cameron’s CaringBridge site Tuesday night.

Six years ago, Cameron was born with a congenital heart defect. Twelve days after birth he underwent pacemaker surgery.

The hope was the pacemaker would give Cameron’s heart enough time to develop and ultimately have reconstructive surgery to correct his condition. But for the past six years Cam has been in and out of the hospital—and complications continued to arise.

Cameron has been on a waiting list for a heart transplant since Oct. 22. On Wednesday (May 15) he underwent heart transplant surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

"Cameron is now out of the operating room and doing well," Kari said in a statement. "Our family appreciates all of the support we've received from family, friends, and community."

Follow Cameron’s progress on his CaringBridge site.

“We just met with Dr. Burkhart and surgery went well,” Cameron’s father Rob wrote on the CaringBridge site Wednesday morning. “The heart seems to be functioning well and he is expected to be downstairs another hour or two to help stop bleeding, then an hour or two in the room before we can see him.”