A 9-year-old girl from Ukraine received life-saving heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital.

Polina Shechepaniak was in need of critical heart surgery, so she and her family traveled from Ukraine because she was not able to the proper care at home.

She was able to get the surgery - repairing a hole between the two upper chambers of her heart.

Shechepaniak says the doctors saved her life.

"Thank you, Dr. Levchuck, and thank you to all the team because I want to run ... like all children and all people," Shechepaniak says.

Shechepaniak will be able to run under doctor's orders in just five days.

She is under the care of the top heart doctors in the country.