Inspiring 9-year-old girl gets new heart

On Valentine's Day, Lindsey Lou Bingham, 9, got a new heart.

Last summer, the North Powder, Oregon, girl was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that enlarges the heart causing it to weaken and pump inefficiently, last summer. She spent the next 8 months at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in California, hooked up to an external mechanical heart pump as she waited for an organ donor.

It wasn't the first terrifying ordeal for Lindsey's parents, Jason and Stacy Bingham: all five of their children have the genetic markers for cardiomyopathy. Eldest daughter, Sierra, 13, underwent a heart transplant in 2006. Son Gage, 4, is now taking medication and using a pacemaker, too.

NBC's Dateline covered the remarkable family's story of hope and perseverance last summer. The program will feature a follow-up story this Wednesday.

Watch the promo on Huffington Post — including Lindsey's thrilled response to news that she was about to receive her long-awaited heart transplant.

"People say, 'We’ll be happy when….'" Stacy Bingham told the Observer of her family's upbeat attitude as they face more medical hurdles and uncertainties in the future. "We decided to be happy now. All five of us, together as a family."

Lindsey is now doing well. Yesterday her parents blogged that the entire family was finally home in Eastern Oregon following months of hospital stays and living at a Ronald McDonald House.

"Well, we are home. It has been a pretty exciting time," they wrote.

"It was so nice to see life back into this house."

Follow the family's story here.