Current Apple CEO Tim Cook had offered ailing Steve Jobs his Liver but Jobs refused
Back in January 2009 when Steve Jobs was sick with a painful condition called ascites which is a gastroenterological side effect of cancer that caused his belly to swell. Doctors had told the then Apple CEO he would require a liver transplant and that too urgently.
Steve Jobs had to look no further according to a new biography, In Becoming Steve Jobs, which reveals that current Apple CEO Tim Cook once offered an ailing Jobs a portion of his liver.
In Becoming Steve Jobs which will be released on March 24, is written by veteran technology reporter Brent Schlender and Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli.
An excerpt from the biography is given below :
“One afternoon, Cook left the house feeling so upset that he had his own blood tested. He found out that he, like Steve, had a rare blood type, and guessed that it might be the same. He started doing research, and learned that it is possible to transfer a portion of a living person’s liver to someone in need of a transplant. About 6,000 living-donor transplants are performed every year in the United States, and the rate of success for both donor and recipient is high. The liver is a regenerative organ. The portion transplanted into the recipient will grow to a functional size, and the portion of the liver that the donor gives up will also grow back.”
After going through all the necessary tests to determine whether Tim Cook could donate a part of his liver, he stopped by Jobs’s home in Palo Alto to tell ailing Jobs about his decision, Jobs refused. “He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth,” said Cook. “‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that.'”
“Somebody that’s selfish,” Cook continues, “doesn’t reply like that. I mean, here’s a guy, he’s dying, he’s very close to death because of his liver issue, and here’s someone healthy offering a way out. I said, ‘Steve, I’m perfectly healthy, I’ve been checked out. Here’s the medical report. I can do this and I’m not putting myself at risk, I’ll be fine.’ And he doesn’t think about it. It was not, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ It was not, ‘I’ll think about it.’ It was not, ‘Oh, the condition I’m in . . .’ It was, ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them.”
The biography, In Becoming Steve Jobs will be available on 24th March, 2015 and you can read the full story of how ailing Jobs refused a offer why may have let him possible live some more years.
Book Excerpts from Fast Company.
