- As we approach our 2,000th show,
this is one of my favorite stories that we have done.
It's been about three years
since we met our first--this young man, Tayt.
He's a young boy who was born with only half of his heart,
and I can't wait to share his update with you today.
Take a look.
A Rigby boy is looking for a dream to come true.
- Ellen! - Chrissy Andersen always hoped
her son would find a girlfriend,
but maybe not this young. - I like Ellen.
Tayt's lived 3/4 of his life in a hospital bed.
We've had nine open-heart surgeries
and heart surgeries together.
- Hi, Tayt, it's your girlfriend, Ellen.
Hi, Tayt!
[cheers and applause]
I'll tell you something, Tayt, you're my only boyfriend.
[laughter] - I love you.
- I love you too, Tayt.
I love you.
[Coldplay's "A Sky Full of Stars"]
What was the response of being on the show?
What happened after that, Chrissy?
- It's, uh-- audience: Aww.
- Come sit with me.
[applause] [music continues]
- [singing] 'Cause you're a sky
'Cause you're a sky full of stars
- How's Tayt's--I know we had a little problem...
- Yeah. - After he was here.
- We had a heart attack, and... - Mm-hmm.
- You called... - Yep.
- And he all of a sudden started doing better,
and he said, "Mommy, I gotta get better.
I gotta go see my girlfriend."
- "Finding Dory" comes out June 17, 2016,
and you... - What?
- You need to get better because you're gonna be my VIP guest
at that premiere, okay? - Yeah!
[cheers and applause]
[music continues]
- I'll tell you what's amazing, is that now,
this is really good news,
he is at the top of the heart transplant list.
- Right. [cheers and applause]
- Number one.
Let me tell you something right now,
there aren't too many people I've met
that have a heart as good as yours--that you have right now.
You have an amazing heart.
You're an amazing guy, but if you wanna
get another heart, that's okay with me.
- [laughs]
- [singing] 'Cause you get lighter
The more it gets dark.
- You wanna tell Ellen anything? - I'm getting a new heart.
- [crying] You are getting a new heart.
- [singing] 'Cause in a sky
'Cause in a sky full of stars.
- You have always seemed to, like, come in
and give him the boost that he needs
to keep going, and so, that's something that, as a mom,
like, I can never thank you enough for
because he keeps going through everything,
and it's you, you're with him every day.
- Yay! Tayt gets to go home! [cheers]
Yay!
- You're gonna go home-- - Look at that new heart.
Do you wanna tell Ellen anything?
- I love you.
- Please welcome back my boyfriend,
Tayt Andersen, and his mom, Chrissy.
First of all, you look great. I love your hair.
You have a whole new hairstyle and everything.
[both laugh] How do you feel?
- How do you feel? - I feel better...
- Yeah. - 'Cause I got myself...
- You got--and you got what? - A new heart.
- You do. You have a new heart.
[cheers and applause]
- How much does the new heart--tell her.
- Huh?
- How much does your new heart love your girlfriend?
- Um... - Like, so much?
- So much. - So much, okay.
I was hoping that that heart would love me
just as the other heart, so... - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah, I'm glad.
Okay, so I can't imagine, Chrissy, getting the call,
'cause, you know... - [laughs]
- You can be on the top of the waiting list,
but you just don't know... - Yeah.
- When that's gonna happen,
and what was that like when you got the call?
- I thought they were kidding, and I just said,
"You know, if this is a joke, it's not funny,"
and they're like, "No, we need to get you ready.
You need to be here within five hours.
You need to get up and go," and, so, then it was, like,
everything happened and it was a whirlwind and fast,
and then we drove there and we got there
and then everything just started.
It was just a whirl--it was just fast.
- Yeah, I know, I called you... - Yes! Yes.
- And I couldn't believe, I was so excited,
and I was glad that I actually got to speak to him
'cause I thought it was... - Yeah.
gonna be too late and that he would be in surgery.
- No, we made--Tayt's like, "You can hold on."
That's what he told his doctors, "You can hold on,"
and so, everybody, I mean, everybody from the surgical team
and everyone--you called, so--was there
and he's just like, "I get to talk to my girlfriend,"
and his heart surgeon comes out and he's like,
"No pressure or anything, right?"
And I'm like, "Nope. None."
So...yeah, so, he did, I mean, you did awesome,
and you went with him to surgery.
Your Dories went with him.
You were playing on the iPad with him, and you went,
like, you were with him for 18 hours.
You were with him. - I'm so glad
that I could be there with you. [cheers and applause]
All right, well, I know you've been through a lot.
I know medical bills are a lot,
and Shutterfly loves that you've been able to help your family,
and they wanna continue to help you with this check for $20,000.
- Holy crap. - Ellen, are you serious?
- I'm serious.
[cheers and applause]
$20,000.
Right? - Yeah.
- Okay, all right, so Shutterfly wanted to give you $20,000.
They love helping you. - We love Shutterfly,
like, they've helped us so much.
In fact, they were a huge part of Tayt's transplant with us.
They were--they helped us make our deductible,
with everything that we had, and so they're very
near and dear to our heart just like you are.
- Well, yeah... - I mean, we love you.
- We--well, I love you both, and we love Shutterfly.
They've been huge.
All right, we have to take a break, and we'll be back
and we'll talk to my boyfriend a little bit more.
We'll be back. We're gonna go to...
- Yeah. - "Finding Dory" together.
I'm excited to show you. - Yeah.
- It's gonna be really fun.
So, and now you're driving to Salt Lake City how often for...
- Now we're every other week. - Uh-huh.
- Before, it was every week... - Uh-huh.
- But now it's every other week. - And how far--how long
of a drive? - It's about 500 miles
round trip. - Yeah, 'cause the doctors
didn't allow him to fly, you had to drive here.
- Yeah. Yeah. - Right, so that's a long...
- No airports and no people. - Drive also, yeah.
So you're driving to Salt Lake City
and your car must have.. - [coughs]
- Lots of--you want some water?
Have some of my water. - Yes, please.
- Um... - [laughs]
- So, you have a ton of miles on your car?
- Yeah, but it goes. We're good. - It gets there?
We could do it in our sleep, so--I'm good at that.
- I know, but I wanna give you a better car to drive in.
- What? - So, we wanna give you--
let's walk over here, I just wanna show you
what we have for you. [cheers and applause]
- [screams]
[Instrumental version of Rihanna's "Shut Up and Drive"]
- Let's go see. Let's go see your new car.
[cheers and applause]
[music continues]
- [crying] I love you.
- All right, now let me tell you something...
I wanna show you something. Let me tell you about it first.
It's a 2015 Ford Edge Sport.
It's a reliable and efficient car
for Tayt's trips to the hospital.
It's V6 EcoBoost engine is great on gas mileage,
and it includes a front 180 degree camera
and park assist to help with parallel parking,
and this is amazing, look at the back seat
because you're in the back seat a lot, right?
- Yeah. - You have everything you need.
- [gasps] - You have an iPad,
you can watch the show. - [squeals]
- You have Dory.
[cheers and applause]
- Can you--look at that. - [squeals]
- So, when you're back there...
[cheers and applause]
- Oh, my God.
[crying]
- This'll be fun back here, right?
- Thank you, Ellen. - You're welcome.