Hinckley 1st grader gets heart-warming welcome back after transplant

HINCKLEY – Marshall Morong, 7, high-fived his first grade teacher, Mindy Spinney, after stepping out of a Tesla Cybertruck to cheering from 300 of his Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary School peers.

Monday morning was the first day in nearly a whole year he’d been back to school after all.

Morong rode to school in style, paraded in with a first responder escort, sirens, flashing lights and a sea of his favorite color red worn by his peers as they held “Welcome Back Marshall” signs Monday.

He called the pomp and circumstance “cool.”

“Mom and Dad took us for a special surprise on Saturday and it was a Cybertruck,” Morong said, gesturing to the grey electric vehicle that Tesla of Naperville donated to his family for the weekend.

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Marshall Morong, (center) 7, a first grader at Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary School, is cheered on as he walks to his classroom Monday, May 5, 2025, after arriving for his first day back at school following months waiting for, and eventually receiving, heart transplant surgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Morong arrived in style in a Tesla Cybertruck donated for use by Telsa of Naperville, along with an escort by Hinckley and Big Rock first responders. (Mark Busch)

It’s been 376 days since he’s been to school. Almost exactly three months ago on Feb. 4, Marshall was given a new heart. Surgeons at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital in Chicago operated on him after he’d waited 294 days on a transplant list.

Morong was born with congenital heart disease, and without a left ventricle, his mom Jessica Satdei said.

“Thank you to our donor family for choosing life in such a difficult moment,” Satdei said. “It definitely gave Marshall a second chance at life.”

Satdei said her family came out of isolation after his operation just Sunday, one day before his eager return to school.

“I think that this has been an amazing journey,” Satdei said in an emotional interview. “I couldn’t be more thankful for Lurie’s and for our awesome cardiac team and of course for Hinckley-Big Rock as well. In a world that could have been so isolated, they continued to do Zoom classes with us. ...They just did really cool things and I just feel so incredibly blessed.”

Marshall’s family found out he was getting a new heart on Feb. 2, months after he’d been at the hospital in isolation waiting on a transplant list. At about 3:41 a.m. Feb. 4, the 14-hour operation began.

Ten days later, Marshall was discharged, a record for transplant patients at the hospital, his mom said.

“He’s done amazing. It was a week after he was doing amazing, running up and down the halls,” Dad John Morong said. “It doesn’t seem possible.”

It’d been a long journey for the family: they didn’t realize Marshall’s hospitalization would be quite so lengthy. Family stayed with him the whole time, commuting daily the 2-hour drive from Hinckley to Chicago so Marshall wasn’t alone.

He was admitted to Lurie’s on April 25, 2024, and discharged Feb. 14.

A constant companion during his stay was big sister Carolynn Morong, a fourth grader at Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary.

“I think it’s so amazing and I can’t thank our donor family enough, just like Mom said,” Carolynn Morong said. “I can’t imagine still being at the hospital.”

Hinckley-Big Rock Principal Deborah Hervey helped plan the school-wide welcome for Marshall and family. After learning late Thursday he’d be able to return to school the next week, she sprung into action.

“We just had a meeting to plan the return on Thursday, so we pulled it together,” Hervey said.

Satdei said she couldn’t be more thankful for Hervey and the community that’s surrounded Marshall and her family during this time.

“It’s a really beautiful journey, and sometimes I think we miss how truly spectacular it is,” Satdei said. “It finally feels like a chapter’s been closed, and Marshall just gets to be the best version of himself and we get to see him blossom at a second chance at life.”