Cape Town – Jimmy Kimmel and his wife Molly McNearney welcomed a son named William John Kimmel on Friday, 21 April.
The late night show host made an emotional announcement of his son’s birth on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! revealing that while the birth was easy, there were complications thereafter.
Three hours following William’s birth a nurse heard a murmur in his heart and noticed he had started turning purple.
After being examined, it was determined that William wasn’t getting enough oxygen into his blood. An x-ray of William’s lungs were then taken and they were fine.
Jimmy then tells his audience his son was born with a heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia.
“It’s hard to explain but basically the pulmonary valve was completely blocked and he has a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of his heart.”
Jimmy goes on to add that he and his wife decided to take William to the children’s hospital where he had a successful open heart surgery that lasted for three hours.
While William still has three surgeries and recovery to go, he was allowed to go home 6 days after his surgery and his doing much better.
Watch the video here: