CCMS 7th-grader returns home after heart transplant

Last Tuesday, the faculty, staff, and students of Clinch County Elementary and Middle School welcomed Jonah Pittman back home after being in the hospital for over four months. Pittman, a CCMS seventh-grader, was sent to Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville on Thanksgiving night, and was later flown to Egelston’s Children’s Hospital in Atlanta for heart-related issues. After 125 lengthy days, three major surgeries, and receiving  a new heart via transplant, Pittman and his family were finally able to come back home. The students, teachers, faculty, and Board of Education staff made signs and lined the sidewalks as an escort led by the Clinch County Sheriff’s Office and the Homerville Police Department escorted Jonah through his welcome home party, and eventually to his home. Sheriff Stephen Tinsley and Deputy Lamar Lankford met Pittman and his father, Blake Pittman, in Pearson and escorted them into the county, where Police Chief Desmond Dilorenzo and officers met them at the airport and joined the caravan. Pictured are students at Clinch County Elementary and Middle School welcoming Jonah home; Jonah walking out of the hospital in Atlanta on discharge day;  and  also  ringing  the  bell  as  he  leaves  the  hospital. Jonah’s doctors say he will be able to return to regular school in August.