'What A Christmas Gift' -- Baby Gets Liver Transplant At Lurie
(CBS) -- Lurie Children's Hospital gave a baby a new liver last week after he was on the waiting list for a donor for only 40 minutes.
Five-month-old Daniel McCabe and his family are from Waukesha.
His mother Melody says she couldn't believe it when she heard so quickly from the team at Lurie that a liver donor had been found.
"I just said, 'What? What do you mean we have a liver?'
"And my immediate reaction was the family. That was the only thing I could think of at first was, the poor family. I was just so sad for them. At the same time, I was glad for Daniel, and then I felt guilty for feeling glad."
Pediatric transplant surgeon Dr. Riccardo Superina says the prognosis is good.
"He will recover, with good nutrition. And with time and healing, he probably will regain full function," he says.
Superina says Daniel is small -- one of the smallest Lurie has ever performed a transplant on. He says Daniel is only about the size of a loaf of bread.
Daniel's father Joseph says: "What a Christmas gift."
"We have a very strong prayer network. And I can only chalk it up to some kind of divine intervention," the dad says.
Daniel received a portion of an adult liver. Doctors were able to use another part of the organ for someone else who needed a liver.
