Tony's teenage son Jeff was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Jeff desperately needed a heart transplant to survive. He was put on the waiting list, but he might die before a donor heart became available.
Shortly thereafter, Tony was diagnosed with cancer. An aggressive cancer that's almost uniformly fatal. It seemed like the family was cursed.
It then occurred to Tony that he could donate his own heart to Jeff. He'd stay on life support until the sedation wore off. That way, father and son could say good bye after surgery.
Jeff was extremely resistant to the proposal, but Tony was doomed anyway, so this was his chance to give the gift of life to his son. A parting gift. For the rest of his life, Jeff would carry around his father's heart. He'd be living off his father's heart. When he put his hand on his chest, he could feel his father's heart pumping blood through his veins, to keep him alive.
