One Central Florida 8-year-old is the hero of his family after proving to be a matching bone marrow donor for not one, but two of his older siblings.
According to WESH, Stefan Aihe donated his bone marrow to his older brother Kingsley, 22, and his older sister Vanessa, 13, essentially saving their lives.
The news station reports that both Kingsley and Vanessa were born with sickle cell disease, a deadly disease which causes a decrease in blood and oxygen flow throughout the body and can be painful to live with.
A bone marrow transplant is the only cure for the disease, having a 95% success rate, according to Dr. David Shook.
Vanessa received her bone marrow transplant a few years ago and was cured. Kingsley’s transplant occurred last November, and he has also been cured.
“It’s kind of a bit of a miracle, in my opinion,” Kingsley said.
But Stefan is even more of a miracle because he was a match for both siblings, something that Dr. Shook told WESH was incredibly rare.
“It’s incredibly rare to have the same donor give to two different siblings. It’s uncommon, but it’s not impossible,” Shook said.
“I feel like God did it for us, so we were blessed,” the siblings’ mother told the news station.