She Handed Her 3-Month-Old Son Over for Surgery. Then He Went into Cardiac Arrest the Next Day

Nicole Farrington still remembers the moment doctors told her something was wrong during her 20-week anatomy scan.

Her unborn son, Walker, was diagnosed with ventricular septal defects (VSDs) and atrial septal defects (ASDs) — congenital heart defects that would eventually require surgery. According to the Mayo Clinic, VSD is when there's a hole in the wall separating the heart’s lower chambers, while ASD is a hole in the heart's upper chambers, increasing the amount of blood that flows through the lungs.

At the time, doctors believed Walker’s condition could likely be repaired early in life. But seven years later, after multiple surgeries and complications, he is now waiting for a life-saving heart transplant at Boston Children's Hospital.

“Walker has been a heart warrior since birth,” Nicole tells PEOPLE exclusively. “He knows no different.”

In Walker’s first few months of life, doctors closely monitored his condition while hoping surgery would ultimately correct the defects. But after his weight gain began plateauing, his cardiologist told the family it was time to move forward with open-heart surgery.

Nicole says doctors initially reassured them that Walker’s case was considered relatively manageable “as far as [congenital heart disease] surgeries go,” and hoped he would eventually only need yearly cardiology appointments afterward.

As a first-time mom, Nicole says she struggled to fully understand the uncertainty surrounding congenital heart disease and the reality of how quickly things could change.

“Being a first-time mom, I was naive to all that was happening, really,” she says. “So much in the world of CHD is ‘wait and see,’ and I remember that being so hard to comprehend and handle at the time, just wanting clear answers and a clear path.”

On April 30, 2019 — the day Walker turned 3 months old — Nicole and her husband Brian handed their son over to surgeons for the procedure they believed would fix his heart.

Doctors spent 12 hours operating on Walker, including 8.5 hours on bypass. At first, Nicole says the surgery appeared successful, but the next day, everything changed.

“Brian and I were in his room by his bedside speaking to his surgeon with many team members around, and suddenly he coded,” Nicole recalls.

“His team sprung into action within seconds, turned his ICU room into an OR and started CPR directly onto his heart after re-opening his chest,” she says.

After 45 minutes of CPR, Walker was placed on ECMO, a form of life support used when the heart and lungs can no longer function independently. Nicole says doctors warned the family that he was not expected to survive the night.

“Instead of recovery from open-heart surgery, Walker now faced a fight for his life, at just 3 months old,” she says. “But Walker's fight and will to live was evident at just 3 months old, and he managed to claw his way back.”

Five days later, Walker successfully came off ECMO. Twelve days after that — on Mother’s Day 2019 — doctors closed his chest and implanted a pacemaker after he developed complete heart block.

For Nicole, the emotional weight of what her son had endured hit during a seemingly ordinary moment afterward.

“I remember being given a pamphlet ‘all about your new pacemaker’ with pictures of 85+ year olds throughout, and broke down,” she says. “Staring at my 3-month-old little boy who now has a pacemaker and being handed materials meant for someone on the other end of the age spectrum was my first moment in this journey where I knew there needed to be more awareness for CHD.”

Over the next several years, Walker continued undergoing extensive monitoring and procedures, including six heart catheterizations. Then, on June 20, 2024, he underwent a second open-heart surgery to repair his tricuspid and mitral valves, reduce the size of his right atrium, perform ablations and replace his pacemaker with a dual-chamber device.

For a time, Nicole says the family remained hopeful each new procedure would finally stabilize Walker’s heart long-term. But by the summer of 2025, they began realizing they were running out of options.

In July 2025, Walker underwent his sixth heart catheterization, where doctors delivered the news the family had long feared: there were no remaining surgeries capable of giving Walker “his best, happiest, healthiest, longest, fullest life possible.”

Instead, his next chapter would involve preparing for a heart transplant.

“Going from his initial diagnosis of VSDs and ASDs to now needing a heart transplant has been the hardest to wrap our heads around,” Nicole says. “Walker’s CHD was supposed to be the ‘easy to fix’ kind.”

Even then, the decision of when to officially place Walker on the transplant list wasn’t simple. Nicole says her son still appeared healthy on the outside — thriving in school, playing sports and living life like many other 7-year-olds — despite what doctors were seeing medically.

“It was hard to wrap our heads around Walker living in the hospital for such a long time when he was thriving in school, living his normal life like any other 7-year-old,” she says. “But his heart was telling a different story.”

By February 2026, doctors told the family it was finally time to begin the transplant evaluation process. On April 12, Walker was admitted as an inpatient to Boston Children's Hospital, where he underwent weeks of testing before officially being added to the pediatric heart transplant waitlist on April 29.

Now, the family is preparing for what could be a 12- to 18-month wait for Walker’s “miracle heart.”

“It is a sense of relief to have made it to this point,” Nicole says. “So once we started this process, it was a relief to finally begin the inevitable.”

Even while living in the hospital, Nicole says Walker continues to approach life with remarkable optimism. The 7-year-old spends his days participating in art studio activities, Seacrest Studios programming and special hospital events, while still talking sports and making friends everywhere he goes.

She says he has also continued embracing the same hobbies he loved before being admitted, including golf, baseball, flag football and karate.

“He is such a happy child,” Nicole says. “Despite all he has been through and the challenges he faces, his smile never wavers.”

“Walker is never the fastest, strongest or biggest out there, but he has the most heart,” she adds.

Watching her son navigate such difficult circumstances with so much resilience ultimately pushed Nicole — who previously worked as a publicist before becoming a stay-at-home mom — to begin sharing more of their journey publicly online.

Her hope was to raise awareness for congenital heart disease and pediatric heart transplants, which she believes many people still misunderstand. Since then, the family's videos have reached thousands of people worldwide.

“I know the power of a good story and how powerful social media can be when it comes to spreading awareness,” Nicole says.

“There’s so much misconception about the world of CHD and heart transplants that a surgery is a fix and a cure, when in reality there is no cure,” she adds. “There needs to be so much more awareness, funding, research.”

Walker, meanwhile, continues leaning on the phrase that has become both his personal mantra and the family’s source of strength: “We can do hard things.”

“He can and does do hard things,” Nicole says.

As the family waits for Walker’s “miracle heart,” Nicole says she continues focusing on helping her son remain the happy, resilient little boy he has always been.

“This little boy with the biggest heart is my hero,” she says.