MALTBY, Wash. — At a table in her family’s home, 9-year-old Katja de Groot reaches into the box for dominoes that she lines up perfectly on the table.

Her mother Jennifer encourages her with a smile that belies the extraordinary journey her daughter has just completed. "Is the first domino you, and this is all of the things we went through all summer to get to the place we are now?" she asks, pointing to the carefully arranged pieces.

But life doesn't play out in a straight line. And for Katja, the path to healing has been anything but predictable.

This summer saw Katja get her fourth heart surgery in her nine short years of life. Her first came at just 6 days old. This one will hopefully be her last — a rare partial heart transplant. Katja is just one of about 40 children in the enti

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