Sawyer Jones is a happy, healthy, and talkative little boy. And he’s got a good heart – in more ways than one.
The last time WFAA's Tanya Eiserer saw Sawyer he was a very sick toddler, hooked up to tubes and machines on life support at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.
He was born with two holes in his heart and awaiting a heart transplant. His mother and father took turns standing vigil at his bedside.
This week, his father, Dallas Police Officer Patrick Jones, sent Eiserer a text. He wanted to let her know that Sawyer turned nine this week.
“I just wanted to give an update on this walking talking miracle,” Jones said in an interview Friday. “As you can see he's still here and still running around and being a 9-year-old.”
Since Eiserer last saw him, Sawyer’s underwent two heart transplants, the first in April 2014 and the second in September 2017.
Sawyer’s learned how to walk three times.
He gets a yearly biopsy to check on his heart. He takes anti-rejection medications twice daily.
Sawyer takes speech therapy to help with developmental delays caused by his heart condition.
“Until we tell someone, you wouldn’t know he’d had a heart transplant,” said Patrick Jones.
He’s in third grade. He likes writing and math. He loves soccer and he loves to talk as was clearly evident during the interview with his father.
“We don’t chastise him because here’s to talk,” said his father.
During the interview, he tapped on his father’s shoulder to remind him that he wanted pizza for lunch, more specifically square pizza. Sawyer explained that the pizza would take 15 minutes to cook.
He’s a fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the stickers in particular. He likes the color green. And he hinted that he’d like a Playstation.
The family has always been careful about germs and infection. But with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve become ever more vigilant.
“Now I don’t wear my uniform into the house,” his father said. “We don’t our shoes inside the house.”
They keep hand sanitizer at the front and back of the house.
But there has been heartbreak.
Sawyer’s mother, Shellie, was hospitalized last year with breathing difficulties. Doctors diagnosed her with Stage 4 lung cancer. She was not a smoker.
She never left the hospital and died soon after.
Patrick said he has no doubt she’s looking down from heaven “clapping yelling, screaming, saying, ‘Hey Sawyer.'”
In meeting Sawyer today, Eiserer said it warmed her heart to see him grow into a boy with a big heart.
“He’s a living, breathing testimony,” his father said. “Anybody that doesn't have faith, I just say look at him.”