3-year-old boy in need of new heart capturing community’s heart as he roots for Bengals in Super Bowl
By Megan Mitchell
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CINCINNATI, Ohio (WLWT) — Bengals fans young and old, new and seasoned are all excited for the team’s chance to make history.
But one young fan is determined to show his stripes even from a hospital bed.
Superman Sammy, like many other 3-year-olds, has many questions.
“Daddy, when’s football coming on,” he asked his father ahead of the Bengals’ trip to the Super Bowl.
Sammy is a super fan. He may only be 3, but he already knows a lot about his favorite team.
Like his favorite part about the game?
“Quarterback.”
No surprise there, his favorite part, and player, is Joe Burrow.
Sammy has a bad heart and has had multiple open-heart surgeries.
“It’s just mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting,” explained Sammy’s mother, Courtney Jones.
Things took a turn in December and now he needs a new heart, so he’s at Cincinnati Children’s, being kept on a machine that keeps his blood pumping.
“So we can’t be far at all from this machine and can’t leave the floor,” said Sammy’s father, Garland Jones.
The Bengals’ winning season and trip to the Super Bowl are giving Sammy something to look forward to while stuck in the hospital.
He watches the games, and then the highlights, over and over on his TV.
When he plays the Madden video games, he always chooses to be the Bengals.
“Who Dey!!!”
It’s a call the nurses have gotten used to hearing from his room. He yells it at every one of them and he has decked out his room, arms and heart machine in Who Dey swag.
“It just puts him in a good mood,” Garland said. “He just gets excited. He’s just really jacked up like any other fan in the stands, we’re just stuck in this room watching football.”
A tiny Bengals fan who’s bringing a lot of heart to a tough situation.
Sammy will have to stay in the hospital until he finds a heart, but they already have their party planned with nurses and hospital staff for Sunday.
Last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gave Sammy a shoutout on Twitter, and a grassroots effort was started to get a game ball from the AFC Championship game to Children’s.
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