The world-renowned architect behind One World Trade Center was near death just two months ago, until his son agreed to donate 60 percent of his liver in a life-saving surgery performed by the team at the Recanati/Miller Transplant Institute at Mount Sinai.
“[It was] hard to breathe, I couldn’t function, I felt terrible,” architect David Childs, 74, told NBC 4 New York about his liver failure.
Doctors at Mount Sinai feared Childs was “near the end” and needed to perform a liver transplant to save his life.
In New York, 10,000 people are currently on the liver transplant waiting list. The odds of getting one in a year is about 50 percent, doctors said. For David Childs, and son Josh, the odds on the waiting list were not an option.
“I just wanted to make [him] better, and we were really all in it together,” Josh Childs said about his decision to donate part of his liver.
Mount Sinai's transplant team performed the life-saving operation, and now, months later, both father and son are recovering fully from the operation.
David Childs, in particular, seems to have a new lease on life. “One can have a new life. To be given something like that …forget the lottery,” he told NBC 4 New York.
