A California couple is celebrating the biggest gift they can imagine Christmas – a healthy baby, thanks to the kindness of an organ donor who lives thousands of miles away.
Young parents Chad and Aileen Cooper confronted Michael Speck face to face through Zoom, CBS News reports Chris Martinez, in their first emotional meeting with altruistic stranger.
“There are no words to describe how much we thank you Michael, you saved our son’s life,” Aileen Cooper said in the video call.
“It’s my honor,” Speck told him.
Speck had donated part of his liver to 10-month-old Jacob Cooper. Jacob was born with biliary atresia, a rare disease of the liver and bile ducts that can be fatal.
“Your son was born with a problem and then someone from all over the country appears that you have never met to save his life,” said Father Chad Cooper.
Dr. Yuri Genyk, who works at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, where Jacob was operated on, said the baby needs a liver transplant to survive.
“He was getting sicker and sicker,” Genyk said. “He was hospitalized with an infection before the transplant, he was seriously ill.”
Jacob’s father immediately offered to be a donor, but tests showed a diagnosis of his own.
“In the CT scan and MRI, I found a mass near the pelvis, and this must be seen immediately,” the doctors who told him recalled.
With Chad and Aileen Cooper, both unsuitable donors, doctors began searching for another living donor – which they found weeks later, nearly 2,000 miles away in Ohio.
The donor was Michael Speck, 64.
Speck is both a father and a grandfather, and has already been an organ donor, having previously given a kidney to a minister years earlier.
“The surgeon told me he was a 10-month-old baby,” Speck said. “When I found out, I burst into tears.”
In October – in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic – Speck traveled to Los Angeles for a transplant. It was a complete success.
Speck now hopes others will follow suit.
“There are so many people who can do the same thing as me,” he said.
Speaking to Chad and Aileen Cooper about Zoom, Speck said, “Being able to donate to a child … is a miracle.”
Aileen and Chad told Speck he was the miracle.
“It’s worth seeing you guys,” he replied.
And in November, Jacob’s father, Chad Cooper, underwent surgery to remove his mass, a benign tumor. Both he and his son are doing well.