Five-month-old Daniel McCabe had biliary atresia, a rare liver disorder that, doctors said, was best treated with a transplant.
Doctors warned that it needed to happen quickly.
So they listed him on the transplant registry at 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 13.
Forty minutes later, a match had been found and the transplant protocols were under way.
The heart-warming story has been documented by NBC in Chicago.
“I expected to be waiting a while,” Melody McCabe, Daniel’s mother, told the station.
But at 10:55 a.m. that same day, a liver became available on the donor registry and it matched, NBC said.
Lurie Children’s Hospital officials confirmed for NBC the wait time was very rare.
“Extraordinary,” is how Dr. Riccardo Superine, a transplant surgeon, described it.
“Over the last five years, only 43 people nationwide have waited 40 minutes or less for a match, including Daniel, said the hospital, citing the United Network of Organ Sharing. On average, 6,000 people receive a liver each year, the organization reports, but more than 14,000 people are waiting for a liver, with the average wait being 149 days for adults and 86 days for children.”
The report said the Waukesha, Wisconsin, child had successful surgery days later, and was “looking healthier than ever.”
“This is a Christmas we’ll never forget,” Daniel’s father, Joseph, told NBC.
