Jimmy Kimmel went on his late night show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live," to talk about a painful experience regarding his newborn son that the public must hear.
Kimmel started out his monologue with an apology for being emotional, but he promised that there would be a happy ending. He then shared the story of the birth of his son, William John Kimmel, who was born on April 21. After a normal delivery, a nurse found his son to have a heart murmur along with his color being unusual. After a series of tests, doctors were able to diagnose Kimmel's son with tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia.
Kimmel and his wife made the decision for their son to be transferred to Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where a world-renowned cardiac surgeon performed an open-heart surgery on his son. A few days after a successful surgery, Kimmel and his wife were able to take their newborn son home.
After saying thanks to everyone who was there for their family's journey, an emotional Kimmel expressed his concern about the current situation in the United States is going through with healthcare and funding healthcare.
Kimmel acknowledged that not all people have the funds or insurance, like him, to bring their children to one of the best hospitals when they are sick. As people would know, a child born with a medical condition would have trouble getting insurance because he was born with a pre-existing condition.
Kimmel then argued, "No parent should ever have to decide whether they can afford to save their child's life."
Kimmel hoped to get this message across politicians who are in charge of the healthcare system in the country as to help those parents who do not have the funds, like he was able to provide for his son, in order to be able to save more children in the future.
Kimmel's monologue has had a positive effect for Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In an interview with People, the hospital's president and CEO, Paul Viviano, said that the medical facility has received an increasing number of donations since the show aired. More and more people continue to be inspired and grateful by Kimmel's monologue and decide to reach out to the hospital in hopes of helping more kids who have similar cases, like Kimmel's son.
