COTA for Shae's Journey

Our Story

This is Tye Shae Flynn JR, but everyone calls him Shae. He was born on May 25^th, and he will be two years old on his birthday. He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. At one week old Shae had his first open-heart surgery. At three months old his hospital declared that his surgery wasn’t holding up and the best option was a heart transplant. He was transferred to Dallas Children’s Medical Center where they offer heart transplant services. He stayed inpatient on Status 1a until his shunt in his heart began to fail and they had to do emergency open-heart surgery. This surgery made Shae get a tad bit better and he was able to come home for the first time at seven months old on Status 2. At 14 months old Shae got RSV, whooping cough, and adenovirus. He had a hard time breathing and had to be helicoptered to Dallas Children’s Medical Center where the doctors decided it was time for Shae to be put back on the list as Status 1a. He received his gift two months later and was able to come home three weeks after his heart transplant. He was doing so amazing! Doing things he was never able to do before. Such as eat and crawl! He even started taking steps with support!! Four months after his heart transplant, he was admitted for rejection. He was in and out of the hospital for about four weeks. In the middle of hospital stays he ended up with Covid. His BNP became chronically high and the doctors decided he needed to go in for a cath lab. This is where they found he had coronary artery disease from the rejection and the only “cure” was a second heart transplant. This has been extremely devastating for Shae and his family. Shae has been inpatient at Dallas Children’s hospital listed as status 1a for two months now (04/29/24).

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (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.