we've hit that point. >> a group hug. >> they're young parents facing more than you could imagine, more than most of us could bear. >> we don't know what's coming. >> their five children all have the same deadly condition. >> next to my heart. >> it's possible that each one may need a new heart just to survive. >> it was our d-day, i think. >> tonight we take you inside their emotional journey. >> what are we going to do now? >> wait until a heart comes, right? >> there are breakthrough. >> you have a heart! >> you do! [ cheering ] >> and setbacks. >> please save our little child tonight. >> what will it take to save a life? >> ready? >> yes. >> you won't believe their story. >> each time you're just little bit on pins and needles. >> you won't forget their courage. >> they're helping. >> you are there through tears

and triumph. "against all odds." good evening, everyone. i'm lester holt. last week on "against all odds," we brought you the story of a mom who survived days trapped in a blizzard to get back home to her boys. tonight you'll see two parents with a different kind of bravery facing a different kind of challenge. here's keith morrison. >> this is where i get the biggest hug in the whole world, okay? i'll see you in just a few minutes, all right? >> all right. >> reporter: she is outside an operating room in palo alto, california. this is the moment of no return, no backing out now, and she is terrified. her name is lindsey lou bingham. she is 9 years old. >> a group hug. >> group hug. >> this is from your mommy. >> we love you. >> you can do this!

you can do this. >> it's okay. >> i know. >> reporter: she says good-bye to her mother and her father. without this operation to give her a new heart, lindsey will die. with it, well, who knows what will happen? >> love you, lindsey lou. there she goes. >> what is happening to the bingham family, jason and stacy and their five children, is like something out of ripley's believe it or not. it is also for all of them an intensely personal and terrifying odyssey. for reasons you'll discover, they've overcome their reluctance and will allow us to be here as witnesses. >> hi, guys! >> well, hello, there! >> they'll even record some of the journey themselves. their defenses, as you will see, are exceptional courage and unshakeable family bond and an

abiding desire to go home. >> hi! >> hi, easter bunny! >> once it was all so very ordinary. here they were, a couple of kids off to college in utah, happened to meet one day at church. >> at first, she didn't think i was all that fancy, but she learned to love me. >> they had no idea, of course, what would be asked of them. when they got marrieon a fine june day back in 1997 and moved to the oregon countryside, to the very town where jason was raised, and started a family of their own. >> how old are you? >> 5. >> and what do you have on your birthday plate? >> a candle. >> as we had each one, healthy babies, they grow through their little childhood. you know, we had their little worries or concerns as they got bit by a dog or a broken arm or something, but nothing with this magnitude.

>> haines is a dospec in the landscape near the idaho border. here, jason joined has father's accounting business. stacy went to work at a nearby hospital as an an stet ricks nurse. this is the home they loved and where they imagined they'd live for the rest of their lives. >> santa gave me an umbrella! >> they say it takes each one of them to make it a family. sierra, who's compassionate and loving, and you have megan, who's confident and athletic, and lindsey's been our little boss y jabber jaws. she makes sure everyone stays in line. and then hunter, who is just a happy go lucky 5-year-old. >> oh, yeah. >> full of energy. >> full of energy and life. and then gage, who's kind of the family clown. >> we love it. it's just a party. >> which it certainly was in may

2012. the kids would soon be out of school for the summer. that's when lindsey began to complain about stomach aches. her doctor thought it might just be constipation or asthma acting up. but then she got worse. her face and belly swelled. she had trouble breathing. so, jason and stacy took her to the hospital where stacy worked in nearby baker city. >> we took her into the e.r. and said, can you do a chest x-ray just because, you know, she's having this difficulty breathing and all this swelling. and we were sitting there reading and -- >> we just thought please, please, oh, please, have a normal chest x-ray, have a normal x-ray, please. we'll take anything, you know? we'll try to handle something else. i don't want to go down that road again. >> did he say down that road "again"? >> then the doctor walked back in. >> he said tell me more about sierra. >> sierra? yes. sierra is the binghams'

first-born, and at that very moment, right there in the emergency room, the binghams descended into a terrifying place, a place they knew all too well. >> surely, no family would have to go through what we went through with sierra again. >> the incredible, terrible journey that began here at the country paradise the binghams loved so well did not start with lindsey's stomach ache. no, it was six years before that, may 2006. the binghams had three children back then. stacy was pregnant with number four, and 6-year-old sierra was at a t-ball game in town, just across the fields over there. she threw up at the game and kept throwing up at school for the next few days, said she felt cold and tired all the time. so, the binghammed tos so, the binghammed t took her te doctor who gave her a chest x-ray. >> the doctor comes in and says you have one of three things here. it could be a pneumonia, a form of cancer or something called

cardiomyopathy. >> the doctor told jason and stacy to take sierra to see a cardiologist in boise, the nearest big city, immediately. the doctor there ordered an echocardiogram. >> and then you hear him go off and make a few phone calls, the technician guy, and he was talking about this kid, another kid that was really super sick and said you need to go to intensive care. and we're thinking, wow that kid's really sick. glad that's not us. >> and then the technician came back and they understood. >> that kid was ours. >> they rushed sierra to intensive care. the diagnosis, dilated cardiomyopathy, heart failure. what happens when you hear a thing like that. >> oh. >> oh. well, first, you're in a misty fog, kind of like your world just came crashing in around you. and then just trying to put your mind around it, grasp it, just fear.

>> sierra was hospitalized for two rocky weeks then sent home with medications the doctors hoped would help her, but she only got worse. >> i remember asking her to come help plant some flowers that would be coming back every year, so that if something did happen, i'd have some kind of memory of her, but she was too tired or too weak to do it. >> five days after the fourth of july, sierra was life-flighted to lucile packard hospital where doctors gave stacy and jason the news. without an almost immediate heart transplant, 6-year-old sierra would die. >> it was horrible. when we say it was a nightmare, it was the worst time of our life, bar none, it was the worst three weeks of my life. >> the wait for a donor heart can be months, time sierra didn't have, unless an experimental child-sized heart pump could be flown in from berlin, germany. >> it would take five days to

get here, which we knew she wasn't going to make the five days. to say there's a time when you've shed every tear you can shed and go home at night completely exhausted, physically, emotionally. we had hit that point. >> we told as many people as we could and asked, please pray for our little child tonight. at 1:30 in the morning, we got a phone call. i thought, that's it. >> but jason was wrong. that wasn't it. the unbelievable journey and the test of them as parents had just begun. coming up, two children in need of two hearts. >> usually you want to hold it together for your kid, but i couldn't control my emotions. >> what about their other children? another dose of difficult news for stacy and jason bingham. >> it was our d-day, i think.

it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply. a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪

there's a bonus in store... if you don't have something important to say? ...at the petsmart double bonus sale. save and get more free! save $10 on all bayer® k9 advantix® ii and advantage® ii flea or tick 6-packs and save $2 on any bayer® expert care shampoo or conditioner, with purchase. at petsmart®. ♪ je t'adore ♪ c'est aujourd'hui ♪ ♪ et toujours ♪ me amour ♪ how about me? [ male announcer ] here's to a life less routine. ♪ and it's un, deux, trois, quatre ♪ ♪ give me some more of that [ male announcer ] the more connected, athletic, seductive lexus rx. ♪ je t'adore, je t'adore, je t'adore ♪ ♪ ♪ s'il vous plait [ male announcer ] this is the pursuit of perfection.

oh honey you're being so patient. i know. you gotta get it right. and that's why we came to the lowe's color studio. i can try on this season's colors, get samples and make sure we pick the perfect one. and if we get it wrong, there's the valspar love your color guarantee. but we're gonna get it right. of course. we're gonna be this color a lot. oh what about this? "dazzle." does it say modern? does it say chic? it says blue. [ male announcer ] valspar signature. look for it only at lowe's. [ male announcer ] valspar signature. i'll bebooop. back. hi, listen i think you could do better. oh no, he's a nice guy. no i'm talking about your yogurt. see dannon oikos is so rich and thick and smooth. so smooth. in a national taste test dannon oikos fat free strawberry flavor beat chobani 2 to 1. mmmm. stamos? look babe - i'm doing better. she means the yogurt. join us babe. try it for yourself. dannon oikos greek nonfat yogurt. ♪ dannon

♪ it was 1:30 in the morning, their daughter sierra struggling for life in the icu. jason and stacy bingham, roused from restless half sleep dove to pick up the phone. >> we thought that was the worst.

and the doctors called and said we have a heart for sierra. and i was like, are you serious? >> the next afternoon, sierra received a donor heart. it had belonged to a 2-year-old boy. in the world of heart transplants, size matters more than age. sierra's new heart would grow as she did. >> i think when it came, it just, we knew everything was going to be fine. there was just never any doubt. >> but it wasn't easy. there were months of recovery and then the regular, invasive, and often painful monitoring against the possibility her new heart would be rejected, a threat she would always face. though, barring rejection, sierra's life should be normal. but the binghams wondered, why, why did sierra's own heart fail? do they need to worry about their other kids? not to mention the ones they still hoped to have? at the time, their doctors assured them, no. after all, neither jason nor stacy, nor anyone in their

family tree, had the disease. >> all megan and lindsey that were younger at the time than us had echocardiograms done just to make sure there were no signs of any enlargement of the heart or anything. and then both hunter and gage after they were born, we had them do echoes as well, just for my peace of mind, and they all came out normal. so, we thought, good, rule that out. that's not an issue then. >> and so, when six years after sierra's transplant lindsey complained of a tummy ache -- >> we thought, well, it could not be the same. i think both of us were probably in denial. >> and that's when they took lindsey to that emergency room in baker city and the doctor asked the binghams to tell him more about sierra. >> we said, well, she had dilated cardiomyopathy. and he said, yes, she's got the same thing, and -- >> she's got an enlarged heart. >> yeah. i think i lost it. i couldn't keep my composure. and i remember just sobbing.

she says, i don't want a transplant is the first thing lindsey said. >> i don't want a transplant. my tummy doesn't hurt anymore. it's okay. >> it's okay. >> she could see the fear in us, and i feel bad that she saw that. that really scared her. >> you're still letting her see that after -- >> that was the last time she saw it. >> the next day, lindsey was flown to lucile packard children's hospital in palo alto, california, the very same place they brought sierra for her heart transplant six years earlier. now it was impossible not to think there was some genetic link involving their daughters' heart disease. so, jason brought the rest of the children here, too, for tests. >> is it going to hurt? >> no. >> no. >> it was june 8th. it was a friday. it was our d-day, i think. we were sat down and told that of our five children that all of them either had cardiomyopathy or had flaggers or symptoms that they watched that can turn into

a cardiomyopathy. >> the cardiologist, dr. daniel bernstein, was as astonished as they were. even though their echocardiograms years earlier had looked normal, now all the bingham children, every single one, would be confronted with a distinct possibility of one day requiring a heart transplant just to stay alive. because of that deadly condition many people have never heard of, dilated cardiomyopathy. >> a dozen years ago, we'd use the word ideopathic, which means unknown cause, but i think it really means we don't know yet. >> genetic testing is a rapidly developing science, but even now, it cannot tell the binghams why, why their children have heart disease or where it came from. >> there were standard tests that can done. in 50% of the cases, we don't find anything. that doesn't mean there isn't a genetic cause. it just means that we haven't yet identified that gene.

>> jason and stacy were devastated. it was not a fluke that one child needed a heart transplant, not near coincidence that a second was now facing one, and in fact, it was about to get even worse. jason and stacy noticed there was something not quite right about gage. coming up -- >> they said he's in complete heart block. we need to admit him. >> here they go again, when "dateline" continues. every five-bladed stroke gives you 360 degrees of smooth revealing goddess skin you can feel and feel. only from venus embrace. also in disposables. [ woman ] you know you don't have to put up with this. those annoying period symptoms.

general pain relievers, like advil, only treat cramps, but midol has three active ingredients to take care of that... and fatigue and bloating. because you deserve better. featherswates brandof oating. anti-reflective lenses. exclusively at lenscrafters. ♪ [ female announcer ] with mccafé, any moment can be a moment of delicious wonder. ♪ the latest -- new mccafé blueberry pomegranate smoothie. sweet blueberries, raspberries, and a splash of pomegranate juice. it's the newest addition to all the unique tastes of mccafé. the blueberry pomegranate smoothie. there's always something new to love from mccafé.

the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪

♪ >> did you get to watch a movie yesterday, lindsey? >> when trouble came to visit the bingham family of haines, oregon, they came in bulk, family size. all five of their children had cardiomyopathy or markers for the disease, meaning it was in their dna, it could happen any time. sierra, now 12 years old, had been living with a transplanted heart for years, and now 8-year-old lindsey's heart was failing. on june 20th, 2012, lindsey was put on the list for a heart transplant, and that very day, jason told her she would grow a beard until she got a new heart. >> i don't care how long it takes, as long as she hangs around, i'm hanging around. >> the average wait for a donor heart for a child is three months, but doctors warned the binghams it could be much longer. so, jason took the other four kids home to haines, an effort to keep life as normal as

possible while they waited. but it wasn't normal and it didn't last. a week and a half after going on the transplant list, lindsey's heart could no longer sustain her. she needed that child-sized artificial heart pump called the berlin heart right away. jason flew back to palo alto. >> so, he happened to bring gage with him. >> there was something weird about him. he wasn't acting right. >> stacy checked his blood pressure and pulse. they were incredibly low. they took him to the hospital. >> they asked to go down to the e.r. to do the ekg there, and they said, he's in complete heart block. we need to admit him. >> at the age of 3, gage urgently needed a pacemaker. so, now there were three. gauge received his pacemaker and quickly rallied. here you can see the signs of the surgery lindsey had to implant her berlin heart pump, this remarkable little device that circulates her blood. it connects through her abdomen to her heart. this massive cart rolls

alongside lindsey wherever she goes. >> my berlin pumps and it goes up into here and it goes to connect to my heart, and this pump is the air, and this machine helps me. and if it got turned off, they'd hook me up to a little thinga a thingamajiggy, whatever it is, a pump. >> a fancy bicycle pump. so, what are we going to do now? >> wait until a heart comes, right? >> yeah. >> let's take a look. lie back. >> but now the need for a heart had added urgency. how long could the heart pump hold out? hard to know. and because it's artificial, it threw off little blood clots, which kept everybody watching, tense, on edge. the family moved into the ronald mcdonald house in stanford, two bedrooms for all of them.

and they enrolled in city schools, a world away from anything they had ever known. >> my class and grade was 28 kids. and so, now my grade is 200 kids. >> but sierra had been where lindsey was, and in daily visits to the hospital, offered advice about the endless needles and biopsies, the daily terrors of her new life. >> i was really scared, so i asked sierra what it was really like to have a heart. >> what'd she tell you? >> she told me it was kind of scary at first, but then it's, you're fine. >> her siblings work to build her up. and as jason and stacy waited, mired here in their impossibly bad luck, a remarkable lightness seemed to carry them through their long, draining days, their terrifying nights. they did not complain.

they remained upbeat for the kids and taught them the meaning of gratitude for what they have been given. do they understand where their hearts come from? >> yes, they do. sierra's, we wrote a letter to the family as soon as we received the heart transplant, because we can't imagine that it really is a two-edged sword when they receive that, because you know what it meant. and as much as we love our child and want them to live, i can't imagine the grief that they have to deal with because they actually had to lose theirs. >> they received a letter back from the grandmother of the 2-year-old boy whose heart now beats in sierra's chest. >> we're eternally grateful to his mother and his grandmother that wrote the letter and to the sacrifices she made to allow sierra to live. >> just as you'll be eternally grateful to some other family. >> yeah. right now i pray for that family out there, someone out there in

the western united states and the child that's going to save her life. >> there was no way, of course, to know if or when there would be a heart for lindsey. jason and stacy were keenly aware that some 50 children die each year waiting for one. in fact, this is why they've let us witness their personal drama, to help the world understand the desperate need for donors. and here, as they waited, two months passed, and then three. jason's beard grew longer, seasons changed. back in little haines, oregon, people understood that all this costs money, lots of money. the binghams have insurance, but it doesn't cover the very expensive multiple medications the kids will need every day for the rest of their lives, tens of thousands of dollars a year.

and so, the people of haines put on an auction. they raised nearly $75,000. and still, they waited. >> one, two, three. >> occasionally, jason went home to help with the family cattle drive or pick up clothes for the kids who were now out-growing them. >> it's a lonely place to be here. i don't know how we're going to continue to live here. we want to live here so bad. today's labor day, so we thought we'd give lindsey a chance to labor. >> but of course, they couldn't go home. >> there you go. >> they celebrated halloween in the hospital, then thanksgiving. six months past. >> i knew we're one day closer. >> how is that heart working that berlin heart? seems to be pretty amazing. >> she's doing really good. >> this berlin has allowed her to feel healthy enough that she's the regular 8-year-old girl. she wants to skip and jump and play. it's a false sense of security,

because you forget, she is still on a heart device that is keeping her heart pumping. >> what are you looking forward to, then? >> get a new heart. >> yeah, and then? >> i want to go home. >> but for now, christmas is coming. the nurses claim they've seen santa sneaking through the hospital. >> he kind of walks in secretly and that he goes out fast, like. >> jason and stacy brought an artificial tree into lindsey's room. she put on the finishing touch, her beads of courage. each bead representing a needle poke, a day in the hospital or a procedure she has endured. but christmas came and went. the wait was becoming unbearably long. >> i can't go outside when it's raining or snowing, so it's hard to try to stay in here, when i can't. it's like.

>> valentine's day approached. they had been waiting nearly eight months now. and then, at 6:00 p.m. on february 12th, the doctor pulled stacy out of lindsey's room for a chat. he had something to tell her. she refused to tell the kids what she was told. >> because i know the secret now, mom. >> sierra thinks she knows. she doesn't know anything. >> i know! >> then stacy called jason and waited in lindsey's room for him to arrive. he passed the nursing station, alive with excitement. >> she doesn't know yet. guess what? >> i knew it! >> are you ready? >> guess what? >> you've got to guess. look in the window over there. >> i have it? do i have a heart? >> you have a heart! >> you do! [ screaming ]

>> they're going to help us. they're going to help us, princess. you waited! >> i did it! >> though she did, though what was coming next was, well, who could predict such a thing? >> oh, i did it! >> coming up, emotional highs and lows. >> i'm sick to my stomach, to be honest, like somebody hit me in the gut. >> the medical roller coaster takes another dip. applebee's new fresh flavors menu includes our new blackened sirloin & garlicky green beans... for which we only use fresh, in-season green beans. we harvest them when they're tasty, crisp, and full of "you'll be back" flavor... [ male announcer ] carl, seriously, we got it. ok, now how about that steak? well technically it's a sirloin... [ male announcer ] alright, let's see it!

oh yeah. there it is. the new blackened sirloin & garlicky green beans. taste buds, meet our new summer fling. the new fresh flavors now in-season menu. starting at just $9.99. applebee's. see you tomorrow. and late night for half-priced apps. starting at just $9.99. [ dog ] applebee's. we found it together.upbeat ] on a walk, walk, walk. love to walk. yeah, we found that wonderful thing. and you smiled. and threw it. and i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. because that wonderful, bouncy, roll-around thing... had made you play. and that... had made you smile. [ announcer ] beneful. play. it's good for you. the opportunity to swap a higher calorie snack for a delicious 90 calorie yoplait light. ♪ [ female announcer ] just one swap a day helps keep the calories away. yoplait. it is so good.

where we've switched their fruits and veggies with produce from walmart. it's a fresh-over. that's great. tastes like you just picked them. so far, it's about the best strawberry i've had this year. walmart works directly with growers to get you the best-quality produce they've ever had. all this produce is from walmart. oh, my gosh. i'm shocked. [ laughs ] i know where i'm going to be shopping for strawberries now. find fresh berries and all your quality produce backed by our money back guarantee. walmart. [ kids ] a bunch! what would you buy with all this money you saved? i'd buy a change-o machine so i could change my brother into a puppy. change-o machine? couldn't you just buy an actual puppy? but if my brother's a puppy i could bring him to show and tell and say, "here's my puppy brother!"

well when you say it like that it makes perfect sense. [ male announcer ] it's not complicated. saving is better. come to at&t and trade up to iphone 5. get it now for $99.99 when you trade in your current smartphone. ♪ waiting for your wrinkle cream to work? clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. you'll see younger looking skin in just one week. one week? that's just my speed. rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots rapid tone repair. from neutrogena®.

♪ i'm like, this has to be a dream, this has to be a dream. i'm like, wake up, lindsey, wake up! but it's not. >> lindsey lou bingham has been waiting for a new heart for 239 days, and now, finally, they have found a match. the doctor schedules surgery the next afternoon. >> i'm just scared a little. pretty scared. they're going to be cutting up my chest and then pulling out a heart then putting another one in. >> and who knows why things happen this way? as 9-year-old lindsey tries to tamp down her fear, stacy her own as she tells jason she has just heard something about

sierra. sierra, who, pure coincidence, has just undergone this very same day a routine biopsy. and jason has a hard time hiding his fear from lindsey, sitting just a few feet away. >> she's actually going to be admitted to the cdicu. she had a biopsy today and her pressure's a little high in her heart, so they're going to admit her to monitor her, so, she could very well be there when lindsey comes out. >> jason and stacy go to the cardiovascular intensive care unit to learn more about what's going on with sierra. nearly seven years after her heart transplant, her biopsy is showing that her body is rejecting her donor heart. >> the measurement was significantly higher than her last time, and we need to find out why. >> jason and stacy try to put a positive spin on the news when they tell sierra. >> and so, they want to put you in the unit, so when they get your biopsy results back and

they'll know this afternoon and then decide if it's rejection or something else. >> great day, great day. lindsey's in for a transplant and you're in the best place you can be right now. >> and they caught it. >> one day we're going to look at this and just laugh our heads off. >> but the binghams knew exactly how serious rejection can be. if treatment doesn't work, it could mean sierra will go back on the transplant list. >> i'm sick to my stomach, to be honest, like somebody hit me in the gut. hard to see sierra go into the icu. i didn't see it coming. >> so, mind in turmoil, heart pulled in two directions on this one climatic day, jason returns to lindsey's room where he and one of lindsey's nurses try to keep her upbeat before surgery. >> ready, set, go! >> but hours pass and the surgery is delayed and delayed.

>> we have more delays with the donor. >> okay. >> they're still trying to place another organ. >> okay. >> and it's taking a lot longer than i would have expected them to. >> we still have a good match for her. it's other organ donors that they're trying to get located that's taking a little more time. >> we have the heart as ours, it is not going to go away. >> okay. >> there is always a very small outside chance that the heart goes bad, for whatever reason. >> that's my question. >> that risk is still there. >> okay. >> the timing of the operation keeps changing. lindsey has been standing by for a whole day and night now. she is exhausted, growing more and more anxious. >> i just want to get it all over with, just, like, get the whole thing over. >> and then, quite suddenly, it's upon them. lindsey learns she'll get her new heart in the first hours of valentine's day. >> all right! >> valentine's day!

>> yay! >> happy valentine's! >> yay! >> then finally, 30 hours after they learned about the donor heart, it's time to go. >> crank it all the way up. you earned this one. >> lindsey chooses her own soundtrack for her walk to the operating room, "somebody to love." ♪ somebody, i need somebody to love ♪ >> i've got chills right now, seeing her perk up is just everything i needed. let's put this thing around you like you mean it. >> with her baby blanket transformed into a superhero cape, she is ready to face the scariest event of her young life. jason works to keep lindsey's fear at bay. >> welcome to the elevator. >> oh, yeah! >> this is where i get the biggest hug in the world, okay? i'll see you in just a few minutes, all right? >> all right. >> whe'll see what happens in a few minutes.

all right? you'll fall asleep and then wake right back up. love you, lindsey lou. >> bye, lindsey! >> but as unimaginable as it seems, lindsey's heart transplant operation is just one crisis in a long night. >> let's go check sierra first. >> okay. >> let's just go check on sierra first. >> yes. >> coming up -- >> it was really hard. you want to be happy for the one, but you're feeling so bad and want to cry with the other one. >> two daughters' lives on the line. precision inside the operating room? >> ready? >> yes. >> and emotion outside. >> unbelievable. >> when "dateline" continues. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans.

that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. we listened. get doorbuster deals, 3 p.m. friday through 1 p.m. saturday throughout the entire store like st. john's bay and jcp polos, now $8.99 each. the jcpenney father's day sale. guess what? you can do it. that it's almost impossible to eat healthy. but you can do it. that you can't improve your mouth's health with a toothpaste. with colgate total® you can. [ male announcer ] colgate total® does more than protect. it fights germs for 12 hours. in 24 hours starts to fortify enamel. and in 4 weeks helps improve gum health. you see? for better mouth health, use colgate total®.

[ male announcer ] do more than protect. improve mouth health with colgate total®. you can do it!

my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪

♪ >> love you, lindsey lou! >> bye, lindsey. >> lindsey lou bingham has been wheeled into an operating room at lucile packard children's hospital, where doctors hope to replace her failing heart. until the surgeons have examined the donor heart themselves, there's a chance they will have to stop the surgery. surely, enough stress for lindsey's parents, stacy and jason, who have endured nearly eight long months of hope and dread waiting for a heart for lindsey. >> my emotions are shot. i have no more tears left. >> but they have been given more. after saying good-bye to lindsey at the door of the o.r., they're

going to check on 13-year-old sierra, who's in the cardiovascular intensive care unit following a biopsy on her heart. >> she was really scared. >> sierra is worried about lindsey, and jason is now worried about sierra. >> just because you get the transplant doesn't mean it's over. it's just beginning. >> it's well after midnight now, valentine's day. as nurses watch over sierra and the doctors prepare lindsey for the transplant, jason and stacy are asked to pack up lindsey's room to make it available for another sick child. >> every time we look around we can see the love of other people, like the big heart that the whole school signed and sent to her. >> as they pack up the room they have virtually lived in for almost eight months, the donor heart is being removed in a hospital in nevada. transplant surgeon olaf rhine reinharts is watching the clock from palo alto.

>> from the time the heart is taken outprofused in blood again in lindsey has to be as short as possible. >> are we talking what, five hours? >> a maximum of six hours, but i'd rather keep it a lot shorter than that. >> the team has gone to the hospital where the donor is to retrieve the heart. >> the heart looks really good, so lindsey's chest is open right now, so, she's a go. >> 4:50 a.m., doctors put lindsey on a heart lung machine and begin to remove her diseased heart. it is badly scarred, twice the size it should be. as they're finishing, a call to the operating room. >> they're going to be here in 15 minutes. >> hi. >> 6:00 a.m. jason and stacy aren't prepared for emotions they feel as they see the donor heart arrive. >> the reality of it really sunk in when we saw that cooler that says "human heart" on it. i could see the nurse head down the hallway to my little princess, who's opened up and

ready and waiting for it. >> the passing of life from one child to another. the heart looks perfect. implantation begins. meticulously, surgeons stitch together five separate connections. they begin with the new heart outside lindsey's body, then finish up once it's slipped inside the chest. the heart has not beaten since it was taken from the donor nearly four hours earlier. the next step is crucial. the team will use a defibrillator to spark lindsey's new heart back to life. >> ready? >> yes. >> one. >> yes. >> immediately, it begins to pump and soon finds its rhythm. >> so, it took a couple hours longer than i expected, but everything went very, very smoothly. >> after nearly eight months of waiting and hoping, lindsey has her new heart. but the binghams have two daughters in the cardiovascular

icu now, and as they get the good news about lindsey, their blood pressure spikes over 13-year-old sierra. >> so, i'd like to kind of regroup with the whole team and talk over things and see if we can come up with a more effective, long-term strategy for her. >> i guess i just need to hear you say there are options. >> there are options to look into, but i've always been honest with you. >> yeah. >> this is not the easiest thing to treat and there have been times in the past where we haven't been able to get it under control. >> sierra's biopsy results show antibodies are attacking her heart and already have caused some damage. doctors tell the binghams, they would try an attempt to remove the harmf fuful antibodies from blood. it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. >> unbelievable. >> there is a chance that to survive, sierra will need a second heart transplant. >> the reality of it is it's never going to be the same. there's always going to be something. and now that always something is

going to be times two. it was really hard. you just felt like your emotions are on a roller coaster and you want to be happy for the one, but you're feeling so bad and want to cry with the other one. >> and of course, there is little gage, who has the same heart disease and already a pacemaker at age 4. jason and stacy do their own form of triage, focusing on the sickest child. for now, that is lindsey. >> lindsey, we're all here now. megan's here. so is gage! >> the days after a heart transplant are critical. lindsey suffers a seizure, is put back on a ventilator after a bad reaction to medication, but the doctors diagnose the problem quickly, and soon, she's up and walking without an artificial heart pump for the first time in eight months. >> all right, ready? >> and finally, whether or not to get rid of that scraggly beard jason started growing the day lindsey went on the transplant list eight months earlier. >> do it!

>> lindsey, lindsey, lindsey! >> whoa! >> one down! three to go! >> two weeks after getting her new heart, lindsey is ready to leave the hospital. >> are you ready to go? >> oh, yeah! >> she's out of here. >> she isn't going far, just down the street to ronald mcdonald house until both lindsey and sierra are cleared for the trip they so desperately want, the one back home. until then, all they can do is wait. >> we don't know what's coming. >> no, but what's coming won't be long. >> there's no way to know, is it going to be good or is it going to be bad? so, each time, you're just a little bit on pins and needles, like oh, let us get a good, you know, a good report. >> coming up, a setback for sierra. >> treatments were unsuccessful. >> and another wait begins. will the binghams ever make it home?

dannon oikos fat free strawberry flavor beat chobani 2 to 1. mmmm. stamos? look babe - i'm doing better. she means the yogurt. join us babe. try it for yourself. dannon oikos greek nonfat yogurt. ♪ dannon [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ♪ [ agent smith ] ge software connects patients to nurses to the right machines while dramatically reducing waiting time. [ telephone ringing ] now a waiting room is just a room. [ static warbles ] this was me. then i found dr. scholl's pain relief orthotics. they reduce the impact on my lower body.

so i feel less pain and more energized. dr. scholl's pain relief orthotics-- pain relief that starts with your feet. i'm a believer. it's a new world of wonder.et, at petsmart, the destination for everything reptile. during reptile mega month, save up to 20% on select terrariums from top brands. and save 50% on all ball pythons. at petsmart®. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars ♪ and let me see what spring is like ♪ ♪ on jupiter and mars ♪ in other words [ male announcer ] the classic is back. ♪ i love [ male announcer ] the all-new chevrolet impala. chevrolet. find new roads. ♪ you there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪

and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply.

♪ for jason and stacy bingham, the ordeal seems endless. all five of their children have cardiomyopathy or symptoms that can turn into it. two have already had heart transplants, and a third will very likely need one. in the weeks after lindsey's transplant, her sister, sierra, goes through a course of treatment to try to fight her antibody rejection. and on april 4th, seven weeks after the operation and on the same day, both sisters return to lucile packard children's hospital for biopsies. if the results are good, jason and stacy are hoping to pack up their family and go home to oregon as soon as school lets out at the end of may.

lindsey's heart is working beautifully, no sign of rejection. she'll soon be weaned off the steroids that are causing her face to swell. but as the treatment for sierra's rejection worked? >> the pressures inside the atrium which were elevated are still elevated, so it hasn't gotten better. >> sierra's heart pressures are the same as they were at her last biopsy. her coronary arteries have gotten smaller and both of those things are signs of heart disease. >> just another punch in the gut. every once in a while, the true reality of what we're going through sinks in, and that was one of those moments. >> jason and stacy go to sierra. >> so, what this means is that the treatments were unsuccessful. and so, they're going to wait and see what the numbers are for the antibody rejection and then they'll meet together and make a plan.

>> i'm just going to have to get -- >> not yet, not yet. that light at the end of the tunnel is so close. it's just right there, and then it's like the tunnel collapsed. >> having failed to stop the rejection, doctors begin a different course of treatment. four more weeks go by, four uncertain weeks of waiting, hoping, hoping just to go home. >> just seeing it again, seeing my real actual bed and not sharing with anyone. >> and then sierra undergoes another biopsy to see if the new treatments have worked. >> have fun. >> so, we'll see you afterwards. >> jason and stacy have learned to lower their expectations, not take anything for granted. this result could sink them again in their medical nightmare or set them free. they wheel sierra back to her room to wait. finally, the biopsy results come in, and? it worked.

at least for now, the rejection has stopped. sierra's heart is looking good. >> that means we really can go home. is that what i'm seeing here? >> i think so. >> yeah. >> cardiologist daniel bernstein will make the call. >> i think right now things are going well. go home and enjoy being in your home, and let's see how things go over the next couple years. if things quiet down, no problems, then you're fine where you are. >> okay. >> words the binghams wondered if they'd ever hear again. and in spite of all they've been through, they are grateful. >> we've walked away twice now with two children still alive, and that's more than some parents can say that have to leave here, and we can go home with five children. >> and finally, just last friday, as cloud and rain yielded to brilliant sunshine over oregon, it seemed like half the town gathered in the local schoolyard and welcomed the little family caravan with a huge surprise party.

[ applause ] >> how are you? >> good. >> how are you? good to see you! >> speeches were not required. >> i want to hug you again! >> so, are you letting yourself feel like you're home, or can you quite go there? >> it's a -- we've got a new norm now. to think that it's over, no. it's just the beginning, but we're okay. it's great. we've been truly blessed and we're excited to be home. >> and finally, here they are. sierra went straight to her bedroom just to see it. >> ready, set, go! >> and lindsey jumped on the trampoline, just one of the excited siblings and cousins now, just a regular kid again. >> i love sitting there and being able to watch my kids

playing on the play set and kind of watching them grow and play from afar, just watching them be kids. >> it's not over, might never be, but right now it's just fine. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline: against all odds." we'll see you again for an all-new two-hour "dateline" friday at 8:00/7:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, goodnight. nies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit.