Born April 14, 2015, with hypoplastic right heart syndrome — a rare and severe heart condition — Ridge Petersen has been on a journey that’s anything but ordinary.
Hypoplastic right heart syndrome means that the right side of Ridge’s heart didn’t develop properly. In essence, Ridge was born with only half a functioning heart. From the moment of diagnosis, his parents knew the road ahead would be challenging.
Ridge is the third of six sons of Tagg and Katie Petersen, who reside in Dallas, Texas.
With Ridge going from having half a heart to a new heart, ward, stake and community members have rallied around the 10-year-old.
The first few years
Ridge’s parents were notified of his heart condition on Dec. 1, 2014, five months before he was born.
“We found out while I was still pregnant,” Katie Petersen recalls. “So, we could plan accordingly, like I had to deliver at a different hospital so he could get the care he needed right away.”
At only six days old, Ridge underwent his first open-heart surgery at Dallas’ Medical City Children’s Hospital. Two more invasive open-heart procedures followed — one at six months and another at age 3. These surgeries aimed to reconfigure Ridge’s circulatory system to work solely with the left side of his heart.
“It was daunting,” Katie Petersen said. “But we knew that God was with us every step of the way.”
As Ridge sat in a videoconference with Church News, he smiled, explaining that he was on the heart-lung machine several times growing up.
During his professional career as a heart surgeon, President Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served on the research team that developed the heart-lung machine that supported the first open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass in Minnesota.
President Nelson was appointed as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Utah by Dr. Philip B. Price in 1955. While working in that role, President Nelson built his own heart-lung bypass machine.
Last year, Ridge wrote a letter of gratitude to President Nelson for his groundbreaking research.
Although life has been difficult, the Petersens have been able to find silver linings and tender mercies along the way.
The need for a new heart
As Ridge grew older, his health seemed stable for a while. But that all changed on New Year’s Eve 2023, when he was 8 years old. His health, which had seemed steady for so long, started to decline rapidly.
At first, Ridge didn’t fully understand the gravity of what was happening. But then his parents shared the news: Ridge would eventually need a heart transplant.
“When I actually found out what a heart transplant was, I was worried,” Ridge admitted.
At the hospital, doctors explained to the family that it wasn’t a matter of if Ridge would need a transplant — it was a matter of when. The medications that were keeping his heart going could work for months or even years, but they would eventually fail.
Tagg Petersen recalled how uncertain everything felt for his son and the family, saying, “The meds could work until they don’t work, so it could be six months, could be 10 years.”
The Petersens didn’t want to focus too much on the transplant at first because of that uncertainty. But as Ridge’s condition worsened last summer, they had to confront the reality and started visiting transplant centers.
His parents tried to protect him from the weight of the situation as much as possible, but Ridge eventually grasped the reality of his condition.
“When I found out that I was going to need a heart transplant really soon, that was scary,” Ridge said.
The family leaned on their faith as they navigated one of the most difficult seasons of their lives. They prayed for guidance as they researched different hospitals, trying to figure out which to trust with the transplant.
Finally, an answer came in an extraordinary way. Katie Petersen found out she was pregnant. This helped them “narrow down who their transplant team would be,” as they needed to be close to Dallas.
“At the beginning, I was like, ‘This is the worst timing,’ because as soon as I found out I was pregnant, my thought was, ‘How do I handle having a baby and a heart transplant at the same time?’” she said. ”But then I realized, ‘They won’t be at the same time; the odds of that are so low.’”
Tagg Petersen explained, “We met with the Dallas Transplant team at Dallas Children’s Medical Center, and I think once we made the decision, we had a lot of peace knowing that was where he was going to get the best care.”
On Oct. 29, 2024, at 9 years old, Ridge was officially added to the heart transplant list. They were told the wait would be between one and two years.
Ridge said that his transplant team was “really kind and helpful,” often bringing him Legos and toy monster trucks during the most difficult times.
When faith meets fear
The Petersens needed help wherever they could find it.
“It‘s humbling when you think that you’re in a position where you can’t get through that situation without leaning on others,” Tagg Petersen said. “Our ward and our stake, really our whole community, stepped up in so many ways.”
Katie Petersen added, “Through that whole time, I don’t think we could have survived without our ward.”
Sara Gividen, Katie Petersen‘s ministering sister, explained that as she served the family, she “felt a glimpse of Heavenly Father’s profound love and awareness.”
She said: “It’s been beautiful to see our community partner with heaven to support their family through prayer and service. As I’ve ministered to the Petersen family with others, I’ve felt the Spirit guide us to know how to support them.”
Katie Petersen added, “Meals, groceries would just show up, you know, like everyone was just helping in the ways that they could. ... I feel like our whole ward and stake has just been very invested in us and in him and helping ease our burdens in any way that they could.”
And those burdens seemed to only be increasing. Ridge had also been diagnosed with diabetes and protein-losing enteropathy earlier that year.
The weight of these diagnoses took an emotional toll, especially on Ridge. While he often faced his health challenges with courage, the reality of needing a heart transplant was daunting. Tagg Petersen remembered some of the hard conversations they had during this time.
“One night, as he was going to bed, Ridge said, ‘You know, I know I shouldn’t think this way, but if I have a heart transplant, I could go to sleep and not wake up. I could die,’” Tagg Petersen recalled.
Ridge’s parents explained that the honesty of Ridge’s fears was heartbreaking. They found themselves navigating conversations they thought were far too heavy for a young boy. They questioned how to explain to a then-9-year-old that the risks are real but that hope still exists.
Faith, too, became a topic of complex conversations. “Ridge would ask, ‘Heavenly Father is supposed to be loving and kind. Why does He keep letting all these things happen to me?’” Tagg Petersen said.
Balancing the logistics of medical care with the emotional and spiritual weight of these questions was exhausting. “It was emotionally and mentally really hard, other than just physically taking care of the physical needs,” he added.
Understanding what it would mean to receive a donated heart, Ridge would often pray for the donor, his mother said.
“He would pray that the person who would be giving their heart, that they were having a really good life,” Katie Petersen said. “He understood, and we understood that they would have to give their life for Ridge to have the heart that he needs to survive.”
A Christmas miracle
Around 5 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2024, Ridge’s parents woke up to phone calls explaining that a heart was ready.
Only two months earlier, they were told it would be up to a two-year wait, so they were not expecting it. Katie Petersen explained that as she awoke the family, they were overwhelmed, shocked and in tears.
“We all sat for a family prayer together to pray for Ridge and pray for the family that just lost their child,” she said.
For Ridge and his family, it was bittersweet. Ridge explained: “I was sad because the person had to die this early, and I was happy because I got the heart this early.”
Katie Petersen admitted feeling overwhelmed with the unexpected transplant coming less than a month from the due date of their new baby.
“Really, I wouldn’t even say happiness, because you’re just like, ‘What?’ And then it‘s complete heartbreak, because you understand what a different family is going through at that exact moment,” she said. “And so you’re heartbroken and just bawling over that. And then you’re like: ‘Oh, my gosh. We’re having a baby in three weeks.’”
Overwhelming help, love and support
With Christmas, a heart transplant and a baby on the way, it seemed like awful timing for the Petersens. But it turned out it could not have been better.
Katie Petersen said: “Because it happened right after Christmas, Tagg already had a bunch of time off of work. And then his family was around, because there’s no school. My parents could come. My sisters came too, because their kids weren’t in school. So it was like we had so much help and so many people here to help us manage it all.”
The Sunday after his transplant, Ridge’s ward even dedicated their fast on fast Sunday to him.
“On that fast Sunday when they were fasting for Ridge, they broadcast the fast and testimony meeting,” Tagg Petersen said, adding: “Every other testimony was people testifying that God is a God of miracles and that they know that God can heal and help — and a lot of mentions and prayers for Ridge.”
A lot of Ridge’s classmates in Primary were especially worried. Many bore testimony at the pulpit that Sunday.
Smiling, Ridge explained that many of the Primary kids sent him cards and videos while he was hospitalized.
Uniting the community
After 18 days of watchful care at the hospital, Ridge was able to go back home — two days before Katie Petersen had their next child. With that timing, Tagg Petersen had paternity leave that allowed him to be there for both a new baby and a recovering son.
Now, months later, Ridge has been able to return to school.
Tagg Petersen said, “The community all rallied around him. When he got back to school, the whole school had a welcome party. His whole class got ‘Ridge’ shirts.”
Katie Petersen bore testimony of the individual help that each person was able to give. She quoted Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who in 2008 invited Latter-day Saints to “lift where you stand” and said each person has “an important task that only [they] can perform.”
“People would just serve in the way that they could, and we needed all of that in ways that we didn’t know we needed,” she said.
Gividen added: “It’s been inspiring to me to watch this miracle unfold for the Petersen family. My faith has been strengthened as I’ve seen how they have continually chosen to respond with faith through all the uncertainty and challenges they have faced.”
What’s next for Ridge
Katie Petersen explained that they “don’t know exactly what the future will look like” for Ridge or his heart.
“The average time for a heart transplant is 18 years right now,” she said, adding: “They do say every decade that number grows because of medical advancements, so we don’t know what exactly the future will be like in terms of this heart lasting forever.”
Although what’s to come is uncertain, Tagg Petersen said that Ridge has big plans for the future and is determined to not let this get in his way.
Ridge jumped in and said, “I really want to be a monster truck driver. I also want to be a doctor.” He shared that he is also excited to serve a mission someday — however that looks for him.
Ridge’s unique path has brought his family together. He said that his brothers have cared for him and have been kind during his hardest days.
But this journey hasn’t brought just his earthly family together — Katie Petersen believes family that has passed on has been there along the way too.
“The veil has been thin, and not only has Heavenly Father been on our side, but I feel like all of our family,” she said, adding, “We get a lot of help on both sides of the veil, and I think you feel that more in settings like this sometimes.”
Correction: An earlier version noted that Ridge’s parents were notified of his heart condition on Dec. 1, 2015. It was actually on Dec. 1, 2014.
