4-Year-old Boy Saves Twin Brothers With Amazing Gift

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes, and 4-year-old Michael DeMasi Jr. is most definitely a superhero after he donated life-saving bone marrow to his 4-month-old twin brothers.

Michael’s little brothers – Santino, “Sonny,” and Giovanni, “Gio” – were born with a rare immunodeficiency disease and required a bone marrow transplant. When Michael’s parents told him he was a match, he didn’t hesitate to step up for his brothers.

Michael knew that his little brothers were sick and he knew that they needed bone marrow. He also knew that he had been tested to determine whether he was a match, his mother said.

When his parents told him he was, he exclaimed, “I’m the match? I’m the match?” Pownall recalled.

His parents asked him whether he wanted to go through with the donation.

“We were straight up – ‘It’s going to be a big needle going into your back, bud,'” Pownall said she told him. “We asked him, ‘Do you want to do this? If you’re scared, you don’t have to.’ ”

Pownall said her son asked whether his bone marrow would allow his little brothers to come home.

She said yes.

He said OK.

Pownall explained that doctors also sat down with Michael to explain the situation and make sure he was absolutely okay with donating. But Michael knew exactly what was going on, and he’d made up his mind. When transplant day arrived, he was overjoyed as he watched his brothers receive the stem-cell infusion. “That’s my bone marrow! That’s my bone marrow!” Pownall said he proclaimed.

Nearly two months later, Sonny and Gio have been discharged from the hospital. And Michael still couldn’t be prouder. “I saved you guys,” he said in a video his mother posted to Facebook. “Let’s go home.”

Sonny and Gio were born with Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD), an immune disease in which the immune system does not work properly.

Unfortunately, the family is already familiar with the disease; their oldest son, Dominick, was also born with CGD. Thankfully, Dominick received stem cells from the umbilical cord of a donor and is considered cured. And, with the help of their big brother, hopefully, Sonny and Gio are on their way to being cured, too.

Share this if you’re touched by Michael’s act of love and bravery to save his little brothers!