"I'm so happy. I've been waiting so long. I can breathe again, and talk. I feel amazing. I've never felt so good." Those are the words uttered by a crying Trevor Sullivan as the 15-year-old was awakening from anesthesia following a successful heart transplant. A video of the Nov. 13 event posted last week to Facebook by Trevor's dad is going viral, ABC News reports. "I really like the video," Trevor, of Detroit, Mich., tells ABC. "It promotes organ donation and people can see the outcome of it." Since the surgery, Trevor has been doing well, WDIV reports, and there haven't been any indications that his body is rejecting the new heart. Trevor wasn't the only one feeling big emotions after the surgery. His mother, Kimberly, tells ABC, "It felt like it was better than the day he was born."
Trevor's parents tell ABC that their son had been feeling sick for about a year. They thought a cold or allergies were to blame, but in February 2015, Trevor suffered sudden heart failure and was diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy. "The worst part," Trevor tells WDIV, "It was hard to breathe." His heart was enlarged to the point that it was interfering with his lungs, FOX 6 reports. Late one November night, after 8 months of Trevor being on the transplant list, the phone rang. They had a match; the transplant was scheduled for the next day. Trevor's parents returned to his hospital room. He asked why. "I said, 'I missed you,' because I couldn't quite formulate the right words," Kimberly tells WDIV. Trevor then asked if there was a phone call. "And I motioned for his nurses to come in and they said, 'Yup, there was.'" (A new device pumps life into "dead" hearts.)