11-Year-Old Girl Undergoes Life-Saving Heart Transplant After More Than 200 Days in the Hospital (Exclusive)

After spending more than 200 days in the hospital awaiting a transplant, Ava Cooper is back home with a new heart — and now, the 11-year-old and her family are opening up about the moment they learned she would undergo the live-saving surgery. In March 2025, Ava called her dad and said the words she had been waiting to tell him for months: "Daddy, I’m getting a heart." "Ava was literally bouncing with joy. She wasn't a bit nervous the day of her transplant. She walked into the operating room so proud and ready - we all were," Ava’s mom Jamie Cooper, tells PEOPLE exclusively.