Jimmy Kimmel Shares Update On 3-Month-Old Son After Heart Surgery

Jimmy Kimmel took to Twitter Friday to share an update on his 3-month-old son Billy's health condition. The late night comedian wrote that Billy is "doing great."

This was the first time Kimmel has publicly addressed his son's health since May, where he revealed to his studio audience on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" that his infant had completed open-heart surgery in April. Billy, born William Kimmel, is the youngest of Kimmel's four children.

Read: Jimmy Kimmel Reveals Son's Congenital Heart Disease: How Many Babies Are Born With CHD?

"Billy is 3 months old & doing great," Kimmel wrote in a tweet. "Thx for the love & support. Please remind your Congresspeople that every kid deserves the care he got."

Kimmel's wife, Molly McKearney, also tweeted an update, saying, "Billy's looking out for a lot of his buddies at Children's Hospital. Remind your Congresspeople to protect them."

Kimmel, 49, drew headlines in May when he explained the events that had transpired after a nurse heard a heart murmur from his newborn, tearing up when he told his audience about the ordeal he and his wife had gone through.

Heart murmurs are common amongst newborns, but a purple complexion isn't. An echocardiogram, a sonogram of the heart, was performed on Kimmel's newborn and the examination determined that Billy was born with a heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with pulmonary atresia.

"The pulmonary valve is completely blocked and he has a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of his heart," Kimmel began.

Read: Caitlyn Jenner Receives Apology From Jimmy Kimmel Following Insensitive Remarks

His son successfully completed open-heart surgery, but he will have to embark on two additional surgeries later on.

"He'll have to have another open heart surgery in three to six months to close those holes, but they want to wait until he's bigger," Kimmel added. "He'll have a third, hopefully, non-invasive procedure sometime in his early teens to replace the valve he has now."

While Kimmel was grateful for the support he received from the medical team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles alongside his close family and friends, he also took a stand on the importance of efficient health care.

"Before 2014, if you were born with [a] congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you'd never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition," Kimmel said. "If your parents didn't have medical insurance, you might not live long enough to get denied because of a pre-existing condition. If your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make...No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child's life — it just shouldn't happen."

TOF is a rare congenital heart defect, affecting fewer than 20,000 annually in the U.S. It is caused by four heart defects that are present at birth, which was the case with Bill and famed snowboarder Shaun White. While it is treatable with the help of a medical professional, it can last for years or become a lifelong condition. Surgery is needed to repair TOF, with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia claiming that open-heart surgery is performed in the early stages of a newborn's life to "patch the hole and widen the pulmonary valve or artery."

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