Rye NYE unprovoked one-punch victim David Cassai’s death has helped save three lives through organ donation

AN UNPROVOKED punch that took the life of a Melbourne man on New Year’s Eve in 2012, has helped saved three lives and brought families together.

DAVID Cassai bought a bus ticket for a stranger the night he was knocked to the ground and left for dead.

It would be one of his final acts of generosity. But not his last.

When doctors turned off his life support less than 24-hours later, his family would make the difficult decision to donate his organs.

His heart saved the life of a middle-aged man.

His lungs helped a desperately ill woman.

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Caterina Politi with Anthony Vesty, who received her late son David's liver and pancreas. Picture: Tony Gough

And his left kidney and pancreas would offer hope to a keen young fisherman near the Murray River who thought his time was up.

Anthony Vesty’s family got the call from a medical team in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2013.

It would set off a sliding doors moment for two Victorian families whose lives would never be the same.

As one heartbroken mother sat by the hospital bed of her son for a final goodbye, another was rushing to get her boy to emergency surgery for a second chance at life.

Five years later, a rare meeting between the recipient and the donor’s family has ­underlined the importance of organ donation.

Now a fighting fit father of one, Mr Vesty said there were no words to really sum up a gift like that. His daughter Mia, 2, was born during Organ Donation Week.

“I think about it all the time,” Mr Vesty said. “If it wasn’t for David I wouldn’t be here. My daughter wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have the life we share now.”

Mr Vesty was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 14.

The condition had robbed him of vision in his right eye and his left was ­deteriorating.

In the months leading up to the transplant, he was on dialysis five hours a day, three times a week. His time was running out.

David Cassai’s grave.

“We are very grateful,” Mr Vesty said.

“Mia will now be brought up knowing who David was and what it all means.”

The Vesty family came ­together with David Cassai’s family, including his mum Caterina Politi, after they ­connected on social media.

It was a poignant connection in more ways than one.

The grief of David’s loss lays heavy on all their lives.

The joy of little Mia’s birth is equally celebrated.

The outrage at the injustice when David’s killer was given day release from prison was felt by both families.

The 22-year-old died after he was chased down and fatally punched on a night out in Rye in an unprovoked ­attack in the early hours of December 31, 2012.

Three years later, Ms Politi used a memorial Facebook page set up in her son’s honour to post a call out to anybody who may have received his organs.

“I guess I was interested to know how his sacrifice had made a difference in the lives of others,” Ms Politi said.

“He was such a generous person. He would have given an organ while he was still alive if he’d had the chance.”

It was Anthony’s mother, Robyn Vesty, who spotted the post.

David’s tragic death had been all over the news when “Ant” had received the two lifesaving organs.

She didn’t know for sure but felt certain the kidney and pancreas had come from him.

“When I came back from the hospital that night and put on the television, the first face I saw was David’s,” Ms Vesty said. “I realised it must have been him. He’d saved my son’s life.

“We were so happy to know that Ant was going to be OK but at the same time we realised there was ­another mother who had lost a son.”

After responding to Ms Politi’s post, in a private message, the two mothers did the maths.

The time and dates of the surgery matched up.

It was later officially ­confirmed.

“We realised we shared a unique link and that it was something worth recognising,” Ms Vesty said.

Ms Politi isn’t overly spiritual. But she has no doubt her son was watching when the two families came together.

In the years leading up to his death, David was just ­another knockabout kid enjoying life in Melbourne.

David Cassai, 22, was killed from a one-punch attack on New Year's Eve in 2012. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

He had a strong circle of mates and a girlfriend. He had travelled enough to understand how good he had it back home.

He was a busy landscape gardener who never caused any trouble for his parents and just wanted to enjoy life.

“Everybody just gravitated toward him,” Ms Politi said.

“He wasn’t academic but he knew what he wanted and set out to get it.

“What more could you want from a young man?”

Ms Politi said her son didn’t like arguing and always tried to be a peacemaker, which could have been why he was targeted on that fateful night. But she knows the ­decision to donate his organs, made in a blur of tears and emotion in a hospital hallway, is one David would have been happy with.

Ms Vesty said that decision that changed their lives immeasurably.

“I was planning Ant’s funeral. That’s how close it had come.”

In finally meeting, the two families cemented a profound connection they all hope will last a lifetime.

“Seeing Caterina standing there with a smile on her face, that was a special moment,” Ms Vesty said.

“We hugged each other. We didn’t really have to say anything. It was beautiful.”

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