Health Watch: Three Chances to Live, Two Heart Transplants!

TENNESSEE, Tenn. -- At any given moment, there are 3,000 people waiting to get a heart transplant in the United States. Without enough donated organs, 20 people die each day waiting for a heart transplant. This is the story of a kid who was not only given a second chance at life, but a third.

Twenty-one-year-old Peyton Boling loves dressing up and giving a heart-stopping performance.

But a disease he developed when he was a baby actually caused his heart to stop.

"He had a massive heart attack when he was eight months old," Melody Boling, Peyton's Mother, told Ivanhoe.

He was placed on the transplant list for a new heart and a year later, he got it.

"Then in the 4th grade, he developed a chronic rejection," Melody continued.

Peyton's new heart was failing.

"It was very scary to know that my health was not in the best place," said Peyton.

Transplant hearts do not last as long as a person's original heart. But with improving technology, the current average lifespan of a transplanted heart in kids is 20 years. At age 21, Peyton ended up in the hospital and back on the transplant list. He got his second heart transplant.

Edith Newberry, RN, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says, "It is very rare that you would get a chance at a second heart transplant."

Newberry was the nurse practitioner for Peyton's first transplant 19 years ago. And she was there for his second one.

"To see him as an adult have another opportunity at a heart transplant has been pretty amazing," Newberry shared.

"When I woke up from surgery, I was in pain, but I felt there was something I couldn't describe. I just felt better," Peyton explained.

Soon better enough to get back on that stage and perform his heart out.

Only about 12 percent of transplants worldwide are performed on children and about three to four percent of heart transplants are re-transplants.