Upstate boy granted wish to become a police officer now awaiting a heart transplant

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Last January, we met Bennett Gulyas as he was getting his wish to become a police officer granted by Make-A-Wish South Carolina and the Mauldin Police Department.

Bennett, 6, suffers from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which he developed before birth. It affects normal blood flow through the heart.

More than a year later, Bennett’s wish day is still something the whole family looks back on.

“We talk about it all the time, and he still wears his uniform it still fits,” says Bennett’s Mom Lindsey Gulyas. “He still wears it, he still rides his police car, and anytime he sees a police officer out in public he like runs up to them, and he’s like ‘I’m a police officer too’. So yeah, it’s still very important to him.”

A few months after wish day, Bennett’s heart started having more complications from previous surgeries.

He had a PICC line placed in November, and earlier this year his oxygen started going down, and he started getting more tired.

Bennett was placed on the heart transplant list in December, and the family is currently at MUSC awaiting that transplant.

“As of now, we don’t have a timeline. They don’t want him to get too sick because if he becomes too sick then he’s not eligible anymore for a transplant. So I’m hoping that we will have a heart within the next year, hopefully, six months to a year,” said Lindsey.

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