Teen Wakes Up After Heart Transplant — and His Family Was There to Capture His First Words on Camera

When 15-year-old Trevor Sullivan awoke after his heart transplant surgery in November, his parents captured a video of the teen's response that has gone viral since his father posted it to Facebook Jan. 19.

Trevor's health problems began in Detroit in September 2014 when he said that he "didn't feel good" out on his school's football field, according to ABC News. Although his family initially attributed the issues to allergies and a cold, Trevor was airlifted to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital because of a sudden heart failure in February 2015. Subsequently, the teen's name was added to the heart transplant registry to await a donor match.

In November, the Sullivan family finally received a life-changing phone call.

"My wife got the call from the transplant team at about 11:10 at night saying we've got a match, we found somebody and we'll have surgery the next day," said Trevor's father, Philip Sullivan, according to KTRK-TV.

Before he underwent the heart transplant surgery Nov. 12, Trevor asked his mother, Kimberly, to record his first moments of waking up from the anesthesia.

"It blew me away. Honestly, for me, I didn't know what to expect. I kind of thought he'd wake up disoriented and in pain, but instead he woke up happy, ready to go and pleased with what he was going through," Kimberly said, according to ABC News. "He made all the worrying that a mom would do go away."

The video footage shows the moment Trevor first woke up and began to cry as he realized that he finally had his new heart.

"I'm so happy. I've waited so long," Trevor said in the video. "I'm so happy. I can breathe again. I feel good. I feel amazing ... I've never felt so good."

Although the transplant surgery occurred in November, Philip shared the video footage on the Gift of Life Michigan's Facebook page on Jan. 19, where it has received more than 1.2 million views.

The Sullivans were not given much information regarding the heart donor, but Philip said that if he could, "[I'd tell them], ‘Thank you for saving my kid,'" according to ABC News.

(H/T: ABC News)

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