Doctor Adopts 4-Year-Old Who Showed Up At The Hospital Alone To Have Heart Surgery
PeopleImages | Shutterstock A 4-year-old foster child named True showed up at Children’s Nebraska to have heart surgery, but he didn’t just leave with improved health, according to People Magazine. Instead, he found a family.
The thought of a child having to face anything difficult alone is pretty heartbreaking, especially at such a young age. Unfortunately, True’s caseworker, who would have been with him under normal circumstances, was sick with COVID. As hard as this was, it might have been for the best, because it caught the attention of someone who would become very special to him.
Seeing the little boy alone at the hospital really struck his anesthesiologist, Amy Beethe.
Beethe told Nebraska news channel KETV about how she felt when she first met True. “He was sitting there all alone, and it just kind of took me aback that this 4-year-old was going to be undergoing heart surgery, and just no one was there,” she said.
This was not True’s first hospital stay, though. He was born with congenital heart disease, and was having this surgery to remedy complications he experienced after a previous open-heart surgery.
Beethe took a special interest in True and visited him while he was in the hospital. She told her husband, Ryan, about him after his surgery, and it wasn’t long before Ryan came to meet him, too. “We went up and met True in the hospital, and it didn’t take long to fall in love with him and know that we needed him in our family,” he said.
The Beethes had fostered and adopted three other children previously, so they weren’t new to the process, and they were willing to go through it again for True.
Now, True is 9, and he’s thriving with his family.
KETV showed footage of True playing basketball with some of his siblings, something he does a lot. “Yeah, I play with my brothers and sisters in the sports court,” he said. “Like, basketball.” He has seven siblings total. One of them is his older biological sister, Laney, whom the Beethes also adopted.
In addition to Laney, True has four other biological siblings. Another anesthesiologist at the same hospital adopted two of them; one was adopted by Amy’s sister, and one was adopted by Ryan’s brother. KETV reported that Beethe called it “one big extended family.”
When asked about his parents, True’s answer was sweet and simple, but also summed up some pretty profound truths. “It’s been good because they’ve been nice,” he noted. “They’re caring. They’re my mom and dad.”
True is far from the only child born with congenital heart disease, and far from the only child in foster care.
The CDC reported that congenital heart disease is actually the most common birth defect. 1% of babies are born with it, which comes out to about 40,000 a year. In the U.S., a baby is born with a heart defect every 15 minutes. It’s not uncommon for children born with a heart defect to be diagnosed with other medical problems, and the cost of care is very high.
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As for True, his mom noted they “don’t love True’s heart disease,” but it doesn’t change how they feel about him at all. Eventually, he will need a heart transplant, but they’re focused on giving him the best life possible in the meantime.
The National Council for Adoption shared that 328,963 children were in foster care in the U.S. at the end of 2024. Of the kids who exited foster care that year, only 45% were reunited with their biological family. 30% had been in foster care for more than two years.
There are so many children out there who need a home, just like True did. Every day, they’re forced to confront scary situations, like having heart surgery, without a family’s love and support. You won’t regret anything you can do to help them.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
