WAUKEE, Iowa (KCCI) — After being away from school for almost two years due to serious health challenges, 13-year-old Ava Weitl from Waukee received a warm and joyful homecoming last week.
Teachers at Eason Elementary School dressed in pink and lined the hallways to surprise Ava with a “clap-out,” a special tradition usually reserved for fifth graders at the end of the year. Ava had missed hers when health issues, including heart and kidney transplants, cut short her time at school in fifth grade. Now she’s back and preparing for seventh grade.
Ava’s mother, Christina DeShaw, shared how their journey began when Ava went into heart failure in September 2023, leading to an indefinite stay at the Mayo Clinic. Ava received her life-saving heart transplant in February 2024, thanks to the generosity of a donor family. However, more complications arose, and Ava lost her kidneys while her lungs were being treated. She began dialysis in April 2024 and received a kidney transplant in January 2025, after her uncle donated in a paired exchange to facilitate her transplant…