(Published Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016) 
 
 Christmas Miracle: Baby Boy in Need of Liver Transplant Gets Donor Match 40 Minutes After Being Listed 
 
 Five-month-old Daniel McCabe was in need of a Christmas miracle: a lifesaving liver transplant and fast. | Photo provided by Lurie Children’s Hospital 
 
 On Dec. 13, at 10:10 a.m., 5-month-old Daniel Paul McCabe, who suffers from a rare liver disorder known as biliary atresia, was put at the top of the waiting list for a new liver. I thought it would be months before a match and that was my biggest worry because he was so sick,” Melody McCabe said in a blog post by Lurie Children’s Hospital officials. I never thought he would receive a liver this soon. He entered his hospital room and told Melody, Daniel’s mom, “We have a liver.” 
 
 Daniel McCabe was born with biliary atresia, a rare liver disease. 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. 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 for Organ Sharing. And then at the same time feeling excited and relieved for Daniel.
– Daniel McCabe is just 5 months old, but he's been fighting a rare liver disorder since he was born. On Dec. 13, things had become so dire that doctors placed him on the waiting list for a new liver and prepared to wait weeks, if not months, with his life in the balance. As it turns out, they waited less than an hour, reports NBC Chicago. Daniel went on the list at 10:15am, and at 10:55am, a doctor received the good news and walked into his room at Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital to inform his mom. "I was just speechless," recounted Melody McCabe, per Fox 6 News. With good reason: The average wait for a liver is 149 days for adults and 86 days for kids. The infant from Waukesha, Wisconsin, had successful surgery the following evening is now recuperating. “It’s one in a million, you know," surgeon Riccardo Superina tells the Chicago Sun-Times. "I can’t ever remember having something like this happen. We were prepared to wait a few months—in fact at one point I think the plan was to evaluate one of the parents for donations.” Only about 40 people have gotten a match in 40 minutes or less over the last five years. Not much is known about the donor in this case, other than he was a male in his 30s. One footnote: His liver was split in two and thus saved the lives of two patients. Daniel's parents expressed sorrow for the donor's family as well as profound thanks. "This is a Christmas we'll never forget," says dad Daniel McCabe. (Apple's Tim Cook offered Steve Jobs part of his liver.)