Ethan's Story

When Ethan Daniel was less than a year old, his mother noticed his left eye was puffy. His pediatrician first thought it might be an allergic reaction. But a heart specialist determined Ethan had restrictive cardiomyopathy. His heart could push the blood, but it couldn't relax and allow blood to get in. He needed a heart transplant.

Surgeons at Cincinnati Children's helped bridge the way to his transplant with something called a Berlin Heart, a device that helped his heart pump until a heart was available for transplant. "It was life or death," his mom says. And it worked. This is Ethan's story.