‘It’s just amazing’: Mom meets the boy who has her late son’s heart and hears his heartbeat again

CHARLESTON, W.Va . (WSAZ) - Nicholas County native Ali Cash met the little boy who has her late son’s heart and got to hear his heartbeat in over a year.

“Means the world to me,” Cash said. “I remember in the hospital, I was alone with Liam. And I laid my head on his chest, knowing that that was going to be the last time.”

Cash says her four-year-old son, Liam, died from injuries from a car crash over a year ago and she says he donated his heart, liver and both kidneys to multiple people.

One of those people, Ali says is three-year-old Baylor Waggamon is a Harrison County native who she says received his heart.

“I really advocated for organ donation,” Cash said. “My son couldn’t come back, but I wanted to be able to, with the organ donation, be able to help others.”

Jacob Waggamon, Baylor’s father, says his son was born with a heart defect and spent his first years in and out of hospitals waiting for a new heart.

So Jacob says meeting Liam’s family for the first time was a powerful reminder that heroes come from every corner of the mountain state.

“We were happy, but we were also sad at the same time because we knew somebody else’s family was losing their child just to give us a heart for our son,” Waggamon said. “I don’t consider them just a donor family. They’re more family now than anything else.”

And for Ali, the boy standing in front of her wasn’t just a reminder of what she lost, but joy because she says she saw her own boy.

“They look so much in a similar way,” Cash said. “It’s kind of crazy. Um.. And then now, I kind of see, like, some of the little tendencies that I was like, my son did that. That’s really cool.”

But for Ali she says hearing Liam’s real heart again was the most special part.

“It’s just amazing,” Cash said. “It really is amazing.”

Ali says that while Liam couldn’t come home, his heart is still out there, beating, and giving life.

“We all leave this world eventually,” Cash said. “And why not save another life if we can? If we can help somebody when we’re not here, why not do it?”

To register to be an organ donor, visit registerme.org.