NASHVILLE, Tenn. — UPDATE (5/21): Jordon Hensely is recovering Tuesday morning after undergoing her second heart transplant surgery.
"The doctor said everything went beautiful," Jessica Williams, Jordon's mother, told 10News. "[Her] heart is beating good, chest closed, ECMO taken out and ICD removed. Praise God!"
According to Jessica, the new heart was beating inside of Jordon at 3:47 a.m. Tuesday. Doctors told her the heart is "very strong and beautiful."
"Thank you, Jesus," Jessica said. "[Jordon's] still in the OR and [has] lots left to do."
This is a developing story.
--
ORIGINAL
At around 11 p.m. CDT on Monday, an East Tennessee woman will get her third chance at life by undergoing her second heart transplant surgery.
Jordon Hensley received a heart transplant around 17 years ago and she now needs a second one. Initially, she faced setbacks. At first, a committee at Vanderbilt University Medical Center voted against putting her on the transplant list. But in April, the hospital reconsidered and she was soon bumped up to the top level on the transplant list.
While waiting, she developed complications and was placed on an ECMO machine. The machine effectively takes over heart and lung function when organs stop working on their own. Her first heart transplant was when she was 12 years old, after receiving a heart from another 12-year-old girl from East Tennessee.
Usually, the organs last around ten years after surgery. For Hensley, it worked for around 17 years before she developed cardiac allograft vasculopathy in February — a common but often fatal condition among transplant recipients.
Now, she's getting another chance to live. Information about how long the surgery may take was not immediately available, and neither was specific information about Hensley's condition heading into the surgery room.
This story will be updated when more information is available.