Ivin Jasper coached this season with a burden far beyond what most of us can comprehend, as his 14-year-old son Jarren spent the fall waiting for a heart transplant.
In August, Jarren went into surgery to fix an abnormally high heart rate, but a complication arose that sent him into cardiac arrest. That episode left him with a mechanical pump to help his original heart push blood through his body, and forced the family to wait through the fall for a new heart.
He would remain in the hospital for another two months after what was supposed to be a simple surgery.
“When this all happened, I was just dumbfounded,” Donna Jasper told the Washington Postin October. “It was, ‘Why did we do this? Why are we here?’ My son is that rare side effect, that one-in-a-million chance of something happening. It happened to my son. So, yeah, I blamed a lot. I was mad at myself. I was mad at the world.”
Late Monday night, Jarren Jasper was taken into surgery to implant his new heart. On Tuesday morning, we were told that Jarren's new heart was in.
As with any heart transplant, today will be the biggest day of Jarren's young life. The Jaspers and the entire Navy football family would appreciate it if your thoughts were with Jarren Jasper today. And also, a thank you to the family who donated the heart that beats inside Jarren's chest right now.