People Die on the Transplant List Every Day, but This Lucky Baby Got a Liver After 40 Minutes

People of all ages spend anywhere from months to years on the organ transplant list, many even dying while they wait, but 5-month-old Daniel McCabe's wait was an unprecedented 40 minutes.

The infant was born with discolored, yellowing skin and has since faced a number of challenges after being diagnosed with biliary atresia, "in which bile from the liver never makes it to the gallbladder, damaging liver cells and eventually killing the organ." His parents braced themselves to face the typical wait time on the transplant list — about three months — by doing everything in their power to keep their son alive until, hopefully, a liver became available.

When 40 minutes after getting put on the transplant list, doctors at Lurie Children's Hospital approached Daniel's mother, Melody, she was expecting really bad news. As it turns out, she was about to receive the best news possible — there was a liver available for Daniel.

"Many times you're waiting for months or years," said Dr. Riccardo Superina, Daniel's transplant surgeon. "There are people who die every day because there's not an organ available." Although Daniel is Dr. Superina's smallest patient to date — he says Daniel is "about the size of a loaf of bread" — his life was saved after an eight-hour operation in which an adult liver was transplanted into his tiny body.

Doctors say that Daniel is getting healthier every day and that he will hopefully be able to go home to Wisconsin by March. Although his parents are devastated for the other family who lost their loved one, they're beyond thrilled that their son is getting a second chance at life. "I can only chalk it up to some kind of divine intervention," said Daniel's father, Joseph. "What a gift."