Here's the moment when a mom hears her baby's heart beating in another baby's body
Cash Landers was a loving and very much loved 2-year-old boy whose favorite things were planes, trains and his big sister Sierra.
"He loved everyone," his mom Brooke Eaton told "Good Morning America." "He never met a stranger, and he loved to share."
And share he did. When Cash died tragically from drowning in 2018, his mom donated his organs -- including his heart -- to people in need. That heart was given to 1-year-old Lola Bonds, who has cardiomyopathy, a disease that results in an enlarged heart. Her heart was crushing her surrounding organs and she was running out of time.
Earlier this week, Eaton and Lola met at University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and Eaton got to hear her son's heart beating in the body of the child he saved.
"Lola reached out to me and I broke down, I cried," Eaton told "GMA." "We bonded instantly and it felt so right."
The Pekin, Illinois mom of Cash and his older sister and "best friend" Sierra told "GMA" Cash would have been happy to meet Lola too. "He would have hugged her immediately," she said. "I know Cash is always with us."
The emotional meeting was captured by University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital. In it, Lola's grandmother, Margaret Bond Vorel said, "There's no doubt we wouldn't have Lola if we hadn't received this miracle. It is amazing."
Eaton said that her grief from losing her son "comes in waves."
But the gift of saving Lola's life, she said, has given her " a new outlook. Whenever I get down,: she said, "Cash comes to me and he tells me the world is gorgeous. 'Life is beautiful, mama,' he says 'and you have a long time to go.'"
