Little Sofia Sanchez, only 11 and awaiting heart transplant, got a big dose of heart when her idol, rapper Drake, surprised her in her hospital room Monday after she invited him to her birthday party.
And it was all because Sofia posted a video of herself, tethered to a hospital IV pump, dancing down a hallway at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago with her cousin for the rapper's "In My Feelings" challenge.
"I love your music and I was hoping that you could come and cheer me up for my birthday or anytime this week," she said in an accompanying video, in which she described her recent heart surgery.
Sofia, who turned 11 on Saturday, is in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant.
Cut to new video of Drake entering her room from behind a hospital curtain and greeting the astonished child in her bed, her eyes as big as saucers.
When she spots him, she freezes, then shrieks, "Oh my God!"
"You asked me to come, I'm here," he laughs.
"It's a miracle," says Sofia, who lives in Downers Grove in suburban Chicago.
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They took selfies, they exchanged autographs, they talked about Justin Bieber and about basketball.
Sofia couldn't have been more thrilled judging from various videos that went viral, including one posted by the hospital.
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"I'm in the Lurie Children's Hospital and look who came to surprise me, Drake," Sofia tells the camera. "Just for you, my dear," he responds.
One of her doctors, pediatric cardiologist Bradley Marino, says on the hospital video that Sofia came in to the hospital suffering from heart failure.
"She was so ill and having this one special day where she doesn't have to be a sick patient, she doesn't have to be a girl waiting for a heart, just a little girl who's a fan of a great artist. It's something special," Marino says.
"Thank you, Drake, for coming to see me, it means a lot for you to come and cheer me up," Sofia says in the video.
Contributing: The Associated Press
