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Baby's godmother also his 'perfect' liver match

A baby boy who desperately needed a liver transplant found his perfect match in his godmother.

Eight-month-old Finn has not one but two rare liver conditions and was in desperate need of a transplant.

His family found a match from someone who isn't a relative, but who has known the infant since he was born: his godmother.

Finn O'Sullivan has both biliary atresia and Alpha-1. The first is a rare disease of the liver and bile ducts that occurs in infants and the second a genetic disorder that can cause liver disease.

Dr. Adam Griesemer, one of Finn’s transplant surgeons and the assistant attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, told ABC News that Finn's dual conditions is "pretty unusual" and that this is the first time he saw a child with this combination of issues.

Getting Finn a new liver was "exceedingly crucial," said Griesemer. "He would not have lived for long."

Sarah McKitterick, the child's liver donor and godmother, said he is "the strongest person she'd ever met."

His body's strength, in fact, has been returning since he received 15 percent of McKitterick's liver on April 18.

"The first time I saw him [after the transplant], I saw the whites of his eyes, something I had never seen before. He has been so ill, so yellow," McKitterick said. It was an emotional moment for her, she said.

Donating part of her liver to Finn was "an honor and a privilege," McKitterick said. And it was a role she was prepared for.

"I knew I was the one," she told ABC News. She told Kate Mullen, Finn's mom and McKitterick's lifelong friend as much as they waited to find out who among their family and friends might be a match for the baby.

"She was steadfast from the beginning that it was her," said Mullen, who lives with her family in New York City.

The two women grew up as next-door neighbors in New Hampshire. They, along with McKitterick's younger sister, Lindsey, "were the founding and only members of what they called the Crystal Club," she said. Mullen's mother was Sarah McKitterick's ballet teacher for 16 years. Later in life, Sarah McKitterick and Mullen were roommates.