Sunday School & Skype: Kenosha Church Connects with 6 y.o. in Need of New Heart

Prayers and a video phone call. It's all part of the lesson plan during Sunday school at a Kenosha church where one of its members - a six-year-old girl - awaits a desperately-needed heart transplant.

The members of St. Mary's Lutheran Church closely follow any new information about Lily Lachman - a first grader diagnosed with myocarditis in December of 2015.

She's been at Children's Hospital in Wauwatosa for nearly two months now and has been on a ventilator much of that time, family said.

She's doing a little better now although it's still difficult for her to speak. That, however, did not stop her from making a phone call.

About a dozen kids crowded around an iPad and waited for Lachman's 9:30 a.m. call. When the notification popped up Lily looks happy but tired - a result of her heart operating at only about 20%.

"Yeah we Skyped Lily to talk to her and sing to her a little bit," 10-year-old Norah Sporer said.

"She hasn't been able to see her friends. They were trying to cheer her up because she was feeling depressed," 11-year-old Emily Van Laningham said.

Beth Kerscher is director of children's ministry at St. Mary's. She, like most members of the church, knows Lily's diagnosis

"And it's her first day of being really well enough to do Facetime us. She's been wanting too since she's been sick," Kerscher said. 

"And what I shared with the kids was that we need to be grateful for every moment because in a split second it can change. I mean, Lily had a cold and this is what came from it," Kerscher said.

Lily will have to stay in the hospital until she gets a heart transplant. Doctors told the family its too risky for her to go home without that operation. She's now outfitted with a mechanical pump working for her heart, family said. 

"Well the kids have missed Lily. And so this was the perfect opportunity to remind the kids that miracles are needed with their very own classmates," Kerscher said.

"Well, I think like nothing's ever happened to me like that before so I don't really know how that would feel. And she just needs a lot of people to pray for her," Sporer said.

To visit Lily's GoFundMe Page - Click here