The moment 15-year-old Austin Eggleston was told he was getting a new heart was caught on camera, and now--after his surgery--he's soon to be headed home.
“It took me a second to process it because I didn’t know what was going on at first," Austin told NBC 5. "But then I remembered--didn’t we make a deal about this?”
It was a promise made by pediatric cardiologist Dr. Phillip Thrush to break the news to his patient dressed as Chewbacca from "Star Wars," complete with the spot-on wookie roar.
“Arguably, the best part of what we do is when we get to come in and tell a family and a patient they’re going to have a second chance at life," pediatric cardiologist Dr. Phillip Thrush said.
The video was viewed more than 2 million times on Facebook, even garnering a tweet from Mark Hamill himself - who wrote: “I couldn’t have said it better myself: 'holy balls.'"
“The dude who played Luke Skywalker retweeted me so I fangooled for like a straight hour," Austin said.
Born with three congenital heart defects and already having undergone five open heart surgeries.
Local
Austin spent the last four months waiting at Lurie Children’s Hospital for a donor heart.
It finally arrived March 17.
“Turns out it was the longest ten hours of anyone’s life," Austin said. "Except for mine, it was like 45 minutes."
The Egglestons hope the attention will inspire others.
"We want to share our story in hopes that maybe one more person would consider organ donation," his mother said. "It’s something that gives a second chance to so many out there."
And Austin says he is forever grateful to the donor family.
“The family made the ultimate sacrifice so that another kid could live another day," he said.
Austin’s recovery is going well. His doctor says his prognosis is good and he should be able to get out of the hospital in just a few more days.
