CINCINNATI — Hayden Weiskittel has a new heart.

The Anna High School freshman has been hospitalized in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital since February, waiting for a heart transplant.

It is fitting, somehow, that the donor heart became available Tuesday, in April, which is National Donate Life Month.

Hayden was asleep and his mother, Christa, was also asleep in his room at 1:24 a.m., Tuesday, when a nurse brought a phone into the room for her to take a call. It was from someone who had talked with Christa before about what would happen if a heart became available.

“When I heard Megan’s voice, and it was 1 in the morning, I knew what she was going to say,” Christa told the Sidney Daily News by phone from Cincinnati, Wednesday. A donor heart had been accepted for Hayden.

Christa called her husband, Scott, right away. Scott was at home in Anna. He woke up their daughter, Madison, 18, and the two of them dressed and headed to Cincinnati. Christa tried to call their other son, Logan, who is in college at Bowling Green State University. But he didn’t call her back until 5 a.m. What she didn’t do right away was wake up Hayden to tell him.

“We decided to let Hayden rest,” Christa said. But there was no resting for Christa. There was no way she could sleep. In the dark hospital room, she scanned the Internet for things to read and somehow got through the time until she could talk to her younger son. Then, she tried to record his reaction on her phone.

“I told him (there was a heart). He didn’t really say anything at first,” she noted. Later, Hayden said, “Well, you woke me up early and you have a phone. I knew something was up.”

“He hugged me immediately. He’d been kind of groggy, but he was awake instantly,” Christa said. “It was a hectic and quick time in the morning.”

Initially, the family had thought that the surgery would begin at about 1:30 p.m., Tuesday. It was postponed, however, because, as Christa posted later on Facebook, “there (was) a delay in harvesting the donor heart.” Scores of friends and relatives have followed Hayden’s progress at cotaforhaydenw.com.

By the time the first incision was made on Hayden at 5:40 p.m., his grandparents, parents and siblings had all arrived at the hospital and had been able to spend time with him.

At about midnight, Wednesday, Christa posted that “Hayden is doing very well. He is off the bypass and his new donor heart is beating on its own. The (echocardiogram) looks good, too. They will be giving him some blood products to counteract the heparin and watch things to make sure there are no issues. Once they are confident, they will put drainage tubes in place and close him up. Still looking at an hour and a half if all continues to go well. It will then take another hour to get him settled in his room before we can see him. They will keep him sedated for possibly another day.”

The medical team told Hayden’s family the the surgery went well and that the boy would probably sleep through most of Wednesday, so Christa and Scott slept in Wednesday morning. What a surprise they found when they got to the hospital at about 11:30 a.m. and learned that Hayden had been up and asking for them for two hours!

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Christa said Wednesday. Everyone is being very careful to not take a disease into Hayden. And doctors will work to find the balance of medication that allows him to have what he needs but to prevent his becoming dependent on it.

Following the surgery, Hayden will have to spend a week in the intensive care unit and then two more weeks in a step-down unit. After that, he won’t be able to go more than nine miles away from the hospital for two months, as his cardiac care continues.

His heart problems date back to the day he was born.

He came into the world with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, Christa told the Sidney Daily News in March. That’s a congenital heart defect in which the left side of Hayden’s heart was not sufficiently developed to function properly.

He underwent surgery within his first two days of life and another two reconstructive surgeries before he was 2. The procedures were designed to “make what he had work for him,” Christa said then. He had two chambers in his heart. Most people have four.

Hayden’s heart failure has been gradual throughout his 15 years. He’s always taken medication to maintain the organ, but the meds’ effectiveness began to diminish in October 2016 and that’s when his name was added to those of children worldwide who await new hearts.

“There are three statuses for organ donation. He was low (in status),” Hayden’s mother said. He began to take diuretics to counteract fluid retention. But in February, it was found that he was at the limit of diuretic therapy. He couldn’t take more without comprising his kidney function and what he was taking wasn’t working enough.

So, Hayden was admitted to Children’s Hospital and put on intravenous medication. That immediately bumped his transplant list status to the highest level.

Neither the Weiskittels nor the medical team who implanted the heart in Hayden’s chest knows where the heart came from. In a year, Hayden will have the opportunity to write a letter to the family of the donor; although he still won’t know who they are. The letter will be passed to them through an organ-donation association.

“We’re grateful to the donor and their family for making such a selfless contribution,” Christa said. “And we’re thankful for all the prayers and wishes from people at home. We’re very fortunate to live in the community we live in.”

In the month that celebrates organ donation, this Anna teen has a new chance at life.

“He looks amazing! God has indeed blessed us with a miracle,” Christa posted.