For many years, it’s been said that Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital keeps quality close to their heart.

Thousands of families come to the hospital with giant stitched heart for its expertise in heart conditions, neuroscience and trauma medicine among others.

In this Go Jim Go/Le Bonheur family profile, WREG’s Alex Coleman tells us about nine-month-old Penny Zimmerman and why her parents say Le Bonheur is the best place for kids, always.

In Collierville, chances are whether you’re religious or not, you can almost sense that little Penny Zimmerman, the baby girl with the bright eyes and the big smile is what her parents call a miracle from Heaven.

Kyle and Becky Zimmerman say nine-month-old Penny is a blessing and their heart, along with their other two children, Lilah and Miles.

“We feel blessed to even have a third kid at our ages, but also so during pregnancy, everything seemed very normal,” Becky Zimmerman said.

Everything did seem normal during Becky’s pregnancy and a scheduled C-section. But when Penny was born at 39 weeks…doctors realized something wasn’t quite right.

“Right when she was born, there seemed some concern with her O2 level that she just wasn’t breathing quite right. However, she had also inhaled a little bit of Meconium in the womb,” Becky said. “So they whisked her off to the NICU.”

At first, the Zimmermans initially had no idea there might be any serious problems.

“Kyle went down to the NICU to see what was going on and when he walked in he realized there was a bigger issue going on. They were trying to figure out how to save her.”

They were trying to save Penny because her little heart was not carrying oxygenated blood to the rest of her body.

Her doctors said she needed the specialized care that could only be found in one Memphis hospital.

Before Penny was transported to Le Bonheur, the Zimmermans wanted to meet their little girl.

At Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, a team of specialists and staff were prepared for Penny’s arrival and quickly diagnosed the severity of her heart problems.

“I just remember seeing so many different machines and cords and medications hooked up to my baby, who, you know, she didn’t look like a normal baby,” Becky said.

Penny was put on a ventilator and she was quickly stabilized her with medications.

“This is the place that delivers miracles. And some of those that I researched while waiting to go see her were truly amazing,” Kyle said.

Two weeks later, something else amazing happened. Penny was finally strong enough to be eligible for her first open heart surgery and had a shunt installed and five months later she had a total heart repair.

Her recovery went well. The Zimmerman’s fears diminished.

Today, their baby girl is living and thriving.

The Zimmerman’s say they relied on their faith in God and their confidence in Le Bonheur to get them through their daughter’s struggles.