Tragedy, and Luck, Leads to Miracle Organ Transplant for Coach

                                                                                             Image Credit: Photo Researchers/Getty Images

ABC News’ David Meyers Reports: 

Since he was diagnosed with cirrhosis five years ago, Ed Mooney knew that if he didn’t get a liver transplant soon he’d be in serious danger. “I probably had a million people ahead of me. My sister got denied as a donor, my brother had his paperwork in and if I didn’t [find] a donor in  him, I basically was going to stay on a list, and my surgeon said I’d keep getting sicker and sicker,” Mooney told ABC News.

What the 52-year old baseball coach from Bergenfield, N.J., needed was a match, in other words, a miracle. He just never thought the miracle would come from such a tragedy. That’s where Dan Glover comes in. The 24-year old was a former star wrestler at Bergenfield High School and a player on Mooney’s Little League baseball team. He was the kind of player a coach never forgets. “He wasn’t a big kid, but he was all heart.” Mooney said.

Glover died last week from injuries he endured  in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. And thanks to an unbelievable twist of fate, his liver went to his former coach. “This makes me want to live for more than one person –  for me and for Danny, and all the people who can see that miracles can happen,” Mooney said from his bed at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Mooney hopes to return home this week. When he does, he’ll finally have a chance to talk to Glover’s family, a conversation he knows will be difficult for both sides. But Glover’s sacrifice will never be forgotten by Mooney, but he knows this isn’t about him. He says, “It’s about the selfless act of a young kid who wanted to give life to others.”

Which is exactly what Glover did. His organs went to at least 50 people.