Tim Cook Offered His Liver To Dying Steve Jobs

In Becoming Steve Jobs, a book scheduled for release later this month, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli claim that Tim Cook offered to donate part of his liver to Steve Jobs in 2009, as the Apple cofounder and CEO's condition was deteriorating.

Allegedly, Cook, convinced that Jobs was approaching death, underwent medical testing to confirm that he shared his friend's rare blood type and was therefore a donor match. As the liver repairs itself, Cook would only have needed to donate part of the organ, but the book reports that Jobs dismissed the offer, saying he couldn't ask Cook to undergo a surgical procedure. Of Job's refusal, Cook said:

"I mean, here's a guy, he's dying, he's very close to death because of his liver issue, and here's someone healthy offering a way out. I said, 'Steve, I'm perfectly healthy, I've been checked out. Here's the medical report. I can do this and I'm not putting myself at risk, I'll be fine.' And he doesn't think about it. It was not, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' It was not, 'I'll think about it.' It was not, 'Oh, the condition I'm in . . .' It was, 'No, I'm not doing that!' He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them."

Jobs eventually had a liver transplant in March 2009, but died two years later when his cancer returned. This previously unreported scenario is just one of a number of new facts Becoming Steve Jobs sheds light on, both in regards to business and personal relations among Apple's top officials.

H/T Fast Company