Prayers answered as baby miraculously survives after receiving new heart minutes before death

A seven-month-old Alaskan baby boy was miraculously saved when he received a new heart just moments after he went into cardiac arrest last week.

Lincoln Seay was born on July 14, 2015 with a rare birth defect in which his organs are located on the outside of his body. Despite multiple surgeries that he went through, his condition continued to deteriorate, according to Fox29.

Mindy Seay, his mother, said they were told that Lincoln might not survive after birth, but they were overjoyed when they heard him cry when he was born. However, his heart started failing so they had to take him to Seattle's Children's Hospital to have him undergo a heart transplant, the report details.

While Lincoln was on the operating table on Feb. 19, he suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Mindy said the doctors went ahead with the open-heart surgery and one surgeon had to compress the baby's heart until they had the new heart.

"Because the heart was en route, they went ahead and opened his chest and the surgeon reached in and hand compressed his heart until the new heart arrived," said Mindy.

It took five months for the Seays to secure a new heart for Lincoln, and an anonymous donor had given their baby a healthy heart, People reports.

In an interview with the Seattle Times, Lincoln's father Rob said they could tell that the last two days before the surgery were Lincoln's last. His skin had already turned bluish-purple and he had been sleeping most of the time. He said they were praying for a miracle and their prayers were answered at the final moment as Lincoln miraculously survived.

In an emotional letter shared on social media, Mindy thanked the anonymous family who chose to donate their late child's heart to another.

"You and I may never meet, may never speak, may never cross paths, but we will be connected on a divine, spiritual level," said Mindy in her letter. "Your child and mine will be forever intertwined as the heart that grew in your womb now pumps the blood through the body of the child created in mine."

She promised to take care of Lincoln's heart and always remember the family who gave it to him.

The Seay family is hoping that baby Lincoln's story will inspire others to become organ donors.