Christmas Miracles: Parents' 2 Children Home After Heart Transplants

WADING RIVER, NY — It's a Christmas miracle, times two, for Wading River parents whose two children both are thriving after life-saving heart transplants. And to make the season even more meaningful — this year marks the first time all four will be home together, and not in the hospital, for Christmas.

"Our true Christmas miracles," Brian Cotter wrote on Facebook this week.

Last December, Brian and Ashley Cotter faced the unthinkable: Two years after their first baby, Ruby June, now 3, received a miracle heart transplant for Christmas, they were told that their second child, Everett — affectionately called Buddy — who will celebrate his second birthday on Dec. 30, also needed a new heart.

In June, the Cotters got the news that their baby boy would have his second chance, Cotter said. Since the surgery, he's been getting better every day.

"Bud’s biopsy results came back with no rejection and even better than the biopsy before," Cotter wrote this week. "He’s loving his new heart just as much as his heart loves him. He’s now six months post-transplant, so all the preventative medications can be stopped. We are so, so grateful— we will have our first Christmas together as a family of four."

Life has changed dramatically during the past 12 months for the Cotters.

"Last Christmas was, for lack of a better term, heartbreaking," Cotter said. They had just learned that Buddy had an enlarged heart — cardiomyopathy — the same as Ruby had, Cotter said. "We are broken. There are no words to describe this feeling — our sweet boy," he said at the time.

Trying desperately to navigate the unthinkable, the holiday was dark, Cotter said.

"Our family was separated. Buddy was at his worst. My wife was home with Ruby, trying to give her a happy, 'normal' Christmas. I was in the hospital with Bud. He was uncomfortable, sedated, sad. It was hard."

Weeks before Christmas, two friends of the family organized a Christmas gift drive, Cotter said.

"I was home in mid-December when Kari and Molly separately dropped of SUVs full of gifts that they had collected for Ruby and Buddy. It was incredible — but, sadly, a lot of those gifts stayed in the basement for a long time. Especially Buddy’s. When he got home in late June, we opened some gifts, but he and Ruby didn’t understand."

Twelve months later, the Cotter family is readying for a Christmas sparkling with light, love and so much gratitude.

"This year as we have been getting ready for Christmas, we are finding some things from last year, and it’s making us very emotional," he said. "People of the community really came together. They were so thoughtful and generous. It was hard to fully appreciate all the gifts then because of how stressful and sad it was at that time."

Last year, soon after they got the devastating news that their second child needed a heart transplant, they were reeling. "Bud wasn’t awake or aware or strong enough to do anything, and I personally didn’t get to see Ruby on Christmas opening her gifts. But this year is hopefully going to be an amazing Christmas. We are really trying to make it special, even though we know firsthand that just being together will make it amazing."

He added: "I’m sure we will be crying all day."