Health Crisis: Jimmy Kimmel Breaks Down Announcing Newborn Son's Near Death
May 2 2017, Updated 2:32 p.m. ET
Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologue on Monday's Jimmy Kimmel Live was quite different as the host got emotional discussing his son's emergency-ridden delivery.
Kimmel revealed that his wife, Molly McNearney, welcomed a baby boy named William John Kimmel on Friday, April 21.
But three hours after the baby was born, a nurse noticed something disconcerting about the newborn. After discovering that their little boy was plagued with a heart disease, doctors ushered him in to open heart surgery.
"On Monday morning, Dr. Vaughn Starnes opened his chest and fixed one of the two defects in his heart. He went in there with a scalpel and did some kind of magic that I couldn't even begin to explain," Jimmy explained tearfully. "He opened the valve, and the operation was a success. It was the longest three hours of my life."
Luckily, Kimmel and his wife were able to take their son home on Sunday.
"He's doing great. He's eating. He's sleeping. He peed on his mother today while she was changing his diaper. He's doing all the things that he's supposed to do," he joked. "This is the best."
Kimmel got choked up while thanking the hospital, doctors, nurses, family, friends and co-workers who supported them through the difficult time.
Then, he thanked his wife for her strength.
"Most of all I want to thank my wife, Molly. First of all, for allowing me to have sex with her in the first place," Kimmel quipped. "That was huge right there. So few have done that. But also for being so strong and levelheaded and positive and loving during the worst nightmare a new mother could experience. I couldn't ask for a better partner. I'm so happy we had this baby together. I'm definitely getting a vasectomy after this."
"Please say a prayer for or send positive thoughts to the families with children who are still in the hospital now because they need it. And thanks," he added, getting emotional again.
Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35 on ABC.
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