One family’s tragedy became another family’s Christmas miracle after a 5-month-old received a liver transplant less than an hour after his name was entered on the transplant list.
This is the first time in his short life that Daniel McCabe’s parents have seen him without yellow skin, his mother, Melody McCabe, told WLS-TV.
Daniel received a liver a mere 40 minutes after his name was entered on the list, after a man from the Midwest in his 30s had just died.
Baby Daniel listed for just 40mins. on transplant list before his family learned a life-saving liver was available https://t.co/jVbArxOdrq.
— Lurie Children's (@LurieChildrens) December 22, 2016
The baby’s father, Joseph McCabe, credited God for his son’s good medical fortune.
“We have a strong prayer network, and I can only chalk it up some kind of Divine Intervention,” he said while fighting back tears.
Two weeks ago, doctors from Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago were able to perform a delicate six-hour surgery on Daniel, one of the tiniest patients ever to receive a liver transplant. They said they were incredibly fortunate that the organ became available so quickly.
“While this happened very quickly and very fortunately, there are people who die every day because there’s not an organ available,” said pediatric liver specialist Dr. Riccardo Superina.
The McCabe family, from Waukesha, Wisconsin, spent the Christmas and New Years holidays in the hospital while Daniel recovered – his three older siblings by his side.
“This is a Christmas obviously we’ll never forget,” Joseph McCabe said.
And the liver used to save Daniel may have saved someone else as well. Doctors only used about 20 percent of that liver, and doctors were able to transplant the remaining liver into an adult patient.
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