Ayden Bird's organ donation miracle

LIFE can often deliver defining moments.

The 3am phone call to say "it's time", and the click and close of the operating room doors, followed by the crippling fear this minute may be her last with her baby boy was, for Jodi Pointon, her moment.

While her five-year-old son Ayden underwent the liver transplant that could save his life, her thoughts were torn between the fear of the unknown and the selfless soul who could change her child's life forever.

"I can never thank that person," she said. "But I think about them every day."

We will never know their name, but through the new-found twinkle in his eye and in the fullness of his laugh, little Ayden Bird is the living legacy of someone who has breathed new life into a once dying boy.

Towards the end of last year, little Ayden was, at times, struggling to stay alive.

The youngster was born with biliary atresia, a rare disease which destroys the liver. But in August, an internal rupture and severe bleeding left him fighting for his life.

With his mother maintaining a bedside vigil, Ayden was given a temporary home at the Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney.

"Towards the end, he was sleeping all day," Ms Pointon said. "He was so unhappy, he was so sick. It was breaking my heart."

White walls and the sterile hospital environment sheltered his struggling little body from the elements. Yet the need for an organ donation became more urgent by the day.

"Some days it felt like I was going crazy," Ms Pointon said. "So many conflicting emotions went through my mind: hoping to find a donor, but not wanting someone to lose their life."

On a December morning at 3am, Jodi would receive the call she dreaded, and yet hoped for, most.

"I just stood up, straight out of bed," she said. "I looked over and a nurse was in our room smiling at me sheepishly. Then I looked at him and all sorts of thoughts started flooding in."

Jodi had always been open to Ayden about his condition, telling him "he's like a car with a broken part that needs replacing".

"But I couldn't tell him that day," she said. "I spent a lot of time looking at him, but I couldn't bring myself to say it."

At 7am, her little "bumblebee" went into surgery and it would not be until 9.30pm that his parents would see their heavily sedated son again.

But the comforting sight of his rising and falling chest, and a doctor saying the "surgery went like a dream" will remain etched in Ms Pointon's mind forever.

Today, Ayden's actions speak volumes of the profound impact of this life-changing gift.

"It's like someone's flicked a switch and he's come to life," Ms Pointon said.

She urged the community to think about other adults and children, like Ayden, in desperate need of organ donation.

"With one decision, you can change someone's life more than I could ever explain," she said. "Without their selfless act, we wouldn't be here, Ayden wouldn't be here today."

For more information visit www.donatelife.gov.au