Transplant kids meet the Braves - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

The idea of needing an organ transplant is a little frightening, but imagine how it would feel for a child.  On Thursday night, a group of kids who have been there were treated to a special night with the Atlanta Braves, and one little face in the crowd might look familiar.      

You may remember Jonah Henneberg.  The last time he was on FOX 5. he was dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, and then Spiderman, and then Wolverine.  Then, he made his own costume with Transformers on top and Toy Story on the bottom.  On Thursday night, he and 100 other transplant recipients celebrated their second chance.

Jonah, who is 8, got a kick out of hanging out with Homer and posing for photos with his mom Kerrie as the grand marshal of the Second Chance Parade,

"In the car ride over here-- he'll be 9 next week-- he said, ‘Mom, when I was 5, I had a dream I was going to be a leader, maybe this is what I was supposed to lead!'  So, who knows, maybe it was fate," said Kerrie Zurkovsy.  

Or, maybe, it's Jonah's little sparkplug personality.  Two and half years ago, FOX 5 viewers first met Jonah as a superhero-loving 6-year-old battling liver disease.  If he was in a costume and in character, he could cope with anything doctors threw at him, even a liver transplant.

Today, Jonah no longer needs the costumes, and he's doing things he never could when he was sick, like climbing on the monkey bars and pushing himself on the swing.  

"Within the first year of his transplant, he could ride a bike, he could climb the monkey bars, he could swim," his mom says.  "He could do all these things that he just couldn't do before.  That took so much effort, now it comes so naturally to him."

And if you looked around at the crowd of more than 100 Children's Healthcare of Atlanta transplant recipients and their families, Dr. Saul Karpen says it's hard to tell who had surgery and who didn't.

"Many of these kids, to be perfectly frank, shouldn't be here," said Dr. Saul Karpen.  "And the fact that they're here, and normal, and just indistinguishable from other kids is what drives the bus and makes us happy."

Having fun in the crowd was 9-year-old Ellie Frey, who struggled for years with severe kidney disease.  Her mother, Kimberly, gave Ellie one of her kidneys three years ago.

"Very scared. Very, very scared about doing it," said Kimberly Frey.  "But when it's your own child?  No.  There's no question about it. I would do it again and can't encourage enough people to become donors."

And as routine as organ transplants have become, they can still be game changers, especially for a child.
 
"Before I had my kidney transplant I wasn't, I wasn't being able to do a lot of what my friends could do," Ellie said.  "And I didn't hardly eat anything.  And then after my transplant I ate a lot. I could actually function a little more than all my friends."

And for Ellie, and Jonah, and a 100 other faces in the crowd, this night was about second chances and giving thanks.

Jonah Henneberg still likes superheroes, only now he draws them.  
    
Last year, Children's performed 17 heart transplants, 34 kidney transplants and 19 liver transplants.   It ranks second in the country in pediatric organ transplants.