COTA for Declan's Heart

Our Story

Our son Declan was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart condition, as an infant.  The disease progressed over the years to the point where he needed open-heart surgery in the summer of 2025, when he was 6 years old.  We traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from our home in Los Angeles for his surgery, which was on July 2^nd, expecting to stay for two weeks.  The surgery itself went well, but there were complications in the hours following, resulting in a total of 4 surgeries in the first week.  He is now confined to the hospital on an ECMO (life support) machine to support his heart while he awaits a heart transplant here in Minnesota, so far from our home.

We are working with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to raise funds for current and future transplant-related expenses in honor of Declan and children like him.  

COTA helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

Ryan and Kelly Quiller