tonight, a special edition of "nightline," within reach. >> a high-flying hollywood executive and loving father in perfect health at the peak of his career, suddenly stricken with a rare syndrome, his organs failing. >> i decided i just can't die. i can't. she shouldn't grow up without her daddy. >> teetering between life and death in a coma. his devoted girlfriend documenting the struggle. >> today is so hard. >> escaping with his life, but losing hi less and about to lose a hand. >> it feels like someone's

holding a bic lighter under my finger tips. >> when he volunteers for a ground breaking surgery. >> that's amazing. >> the fight of his life. >> the astonishing triumph. bringing the simple joys back within reach. >> this special edition of "nightline" will be right back.

this is a special edition of "nightline," within reach. >> good evening, thanks for

joining us. tonight a successful hollywood producer's life brought to a screeching halt by a rare medical condition, told by doctors to say good-bye to loved ones instead he fights back. his journey in personal home videos that some may find disturbing but it is this grim reality on the verge of death that makes his battle back so triumphant. >> for jonathan cox little moments like this are now within reach. >> there's nothing more independent then being able to drive around by yourself. >> for the first time in two and half years this father is behind the wheel of his own scar on the open road. >> i felt the breeze before but right now it feels electrified. it's himming on t

it's himming on t . >> your hand is humming on the inside. >> two years ago his hand looked like this. the successful hollywood executive defied odds after a odyssey left him narrowing escaping death. his girlfriend was at his side documenting her raw emotions. >> it's been so hard so far. >> and watching his determination to heal. >> back then he was a 49-year-old entertainment executive at the top of his game, hanging with jewel, publicizing her movie "ring of fire" and in "the kennedys".

>> today's a big day your daddy's going to become president. >> he was on his way television conference in d.c. when he felts like he was hit by a truck. >> i said get me out of here somehow. >> because you were going to power through. >> it was a very important trip for my team and had been preparing a long time. i needed to be there. >> he drove himself to er before getting morphine before dragging himself across the country. within 24 hours was fighting for his life in icu in george washington hospital, unthinkable for a man who never drank or smoked and exerc and exerc and c fiend. now doctors telling him to call everyone he loves telling him he only has moments to live. >> when they told me i had a

small chance of living that moment i decided not to call my daughter was the moment i decided i just can't die. i can't do it. she shouldn't grow up without her daddy. >> doctors had no idea what was killing him but feared his body was falling into septic shock so he was sedated into a medically induced coma. >> wish i could have talked to him. wish i would have got here sooner. >> jennifer rushing to his bedside. >> they're testing for everything, everything's come back negative. >> his odds of surviving just 10%. >> was described as multiple organ failure, his lungs, his heart, kidneys, he had to have dialysis, everything was shutting down. >> doctors later diagnosed him with he hlh a rare and aggressive immune disorder none of his doctors had

confronted. jennifer had been entrusted to make life or death decisions for the devoted father who would never miss father-daughter dance. >> i kept thinking about his daughter, like, she can't be without her dad. so i was thinking every moment, every decision i made was like, this little girl. >> but essentially you held his life in your hands. >> i know. and that was a really scary thing for me. >> during his coma hovering between life and death he experienced powerful nightmares one presented him with a critical choice. >> a very deep and distinct male voice, don't know if it was my own consciousness, a doctor by my bedside, if it was god, i really don't me to this day and it said if you do decide you're going to live it's going to be the most vicious, painful, all fight, every day for the rest of your life.

>> and you were up for the fight. >> yeah when he put it that way i was like that i get. so i, you know, said, yes. >> the instinct to fight. >> something instilled in him as a young boy. >> can't believe it! >> mesmerized by the tenacious boxer in the movie "rocky". >> my dad took me to the drive-in movie when i was 11 years old and we saw rocky and from that moment forward i just knew what was inside me was way more than i thought before that day. >> you took it as gospel. >> it is gospel. first of all he didn't win. proclamationy didn't win. people didn't think about that. it's about doing the work. it's about putting everything you have into it. if you literally do your best at everything, that's really all you can do. >> after his near-death

experience he woke a new-found appreciation for what was important in his life. >> do you have a conscious memory of seeing jennifer first time you came out of the >> i wanted to marr marry her. >> after two and half weeks body shut off oxygen to preserve his organs, his hands and feet were starting to die. gang green setting in. >> what's the pain feel like in your hands. >> it feels like someone's holding a bic lighter under my finger tips all day. >> doctors want to am pu ate but jennifer interviewed. >> i said absolutely not. >> she began search forge other options and stumbled on possibility of hand trans plant and turns out ucla has a world

renown hand surgeon, who was skouring the world for his next patient. >> i was looking for someone who was motivated, that was healthy and had not had his amputations done. >> because of her critical decision he became the perfect candidate. >> why go through all of the surge zbli when you have transplantation they will put you through psychiatric exercises and one question was why do you want another hand. i thought, well, you have two. i think the world is built for two, and i can handle it. >> the docto and his team began the process by first amputating his left hand preserving blood vessels for the blood transplant but the doctor told him to get

stronger and healthier. he was also gauging something zble. >> what did you size up about his mental tough ngs. >> that is what got me to full in love with his personality. he's an eternal optimist like i've never seen before. >> but he faced a grim reality that his right leg could not be saved. >> that was a painful moment, she was crying with me, the real get itut cry, the admission that we lost that battle was tough for both of us. >> he may have been missing a hand all of his fingers and toes but just like his hero in "ro y "rocky" he kept fighting to qualify for that transplant. the first milestone, learning to walk with his new prosthetic. >> what was it like as he took

the first steps. >> don't let him fall. >> jennifer was crying. i could see scott behind me with this big smile on his face. >> it was a heart-warming, chilling, almost incomprehensivable. >> finally jonathan was ready for that hand transplant but along the way wanted to make good on one particular promise. >> what was your wedding day like. >> it was really sweet, really non-event, the way we wanted it to be, like a second ceremony, it was joyous and happy. we didn't want anything to change. >> their honey moon period involved waiting for the ideal donor. >> you immediate to match for size, color, hair pattern. >> it took seven months to get the call. >> how are you feeling about your hand transplant surge zbli very peaceful. and hopeful that everything goes well. >> and then the complex surgery,

24 tendons, countless nerve endings, veins and arteries, microscopically stitched together. >> so many structures need to be repaired. nerves are like coaxial cables without color connections, you have to figure out how they fit together, so the parts for sensation match up and the parts of the nerve for motor function match up. initial fears are that the vessels are going to clot and blood is not going to move through the hand. >> there's no margin for error. >> no margin for error. >> even if the surgery is a success will he be able to control his new hand or touch or feel again, when we come back. tu even more incredible shrimp and new flavors like new nashville hot shrimp drizzled with sweet amber honey, and new grilled mediterranean shrimp

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jonathan had just escaped death battling back fro multiple organ failure drink by the need to stay alive by his daughter and his unwavering girlfriend but his struggles are far from over having lost a leg and about to lose a hand, he turns to a ground-breaking procedure a hand trant plant. >> after 17 hour surgery jonathan koch emerging with new left hand. >> it was jennifer's birthday when i got out of surgery and she said i just want one thing for you to move one of your fingers and i didn't think there was any chance i could but i thought about it and it moved. >> that's amazing.

>> for the rest of the day any time anybody came to the room, doctors, nurses, friends, family, he go, ah. >> soon as we walked into jonathan's room he gives me the old thumb's up like the fonze i'm like this guy is absolutely perfect. >> and doctor also thought the surgery was perfect. the team of 24 nurses and doctors from competing hospitals successfully attaching the donor hand to jonathans. >> will i be able to play the piano after the surgery. >> but the recovery was far more treacherous than anticipated. >> what was the toughest part. >> my mind wasn't right when i woke up. i wasn't breathing right as everyone wanted me to. i was telling jennifer i am drifting away and i can't get back and control what's happening with me. >> it sound liekz that's the first time self-doubt crept into

your mind. >> yeah. >> it wasn't i walk in the park. >> no. all of the work i had done since getting home with scott, with the wheelchair and crawling on my elbows and knees all of the thirng things i did to rebuild myself they came right back into play having trying to make sense of the hand transplant. >> but ever the fighter jonathan soldiered on. >> one weekend he's gripping a tennis ball and throwing it. >> what! >> next thing you know he picks up a glass of water and takes a drink and he goes ah! >> you tooel fierce and powerful. you just do. when i grabbed the bottle and was able to hold it, even though it was pretty shaky i was like i feel fierce and powerful. this is an incredible feel. . >> moving by movement, grip by

grip, thrilling milestones have got him giddy. >> he has met or exceeded all of my expectations i told him two years before he ties his shoelaces, two months later he's tieing his shoelaces. >> total cost hundreds of thousands of dollars covered not by insurance but by ucla in the name of research that could help so many others. >> this feels good. >> i bet it does. >> it does. >> now within reach, moments like learning to drive again. >> here we go. >> whoa. >> we're out of here. >> on the open road. >> it really did liberate him. now he has the confidence and he's ready to drive again. couldn't tie his shoe before, now he can do that. he couldn't button things before. it helps with hygiene and taking care of yourself in that way. >> was it worth it, all of the pain and rehab everything for the transplant.

>> 100% worth it. would do it again. would tell everybody to do it. you can't imagine the change in my life as i regain my independence. >> he's just now begun to regain a sense of temperature differentiating between hot and cold. and even bigger triumph s it was his dream to play tennis again with his daughter ariana. the racket now he uses with his left handed. >> what's tennis mean to you. >> i just love the competition. i love to play hard as i can, as well as i can, when it's over with no matter what happens it's been an incredible experience and once in a while you catch lighting in a bottle in a tennis match and it's everything you have add i love that. >> how good have you gotten with your new hand? >> i'm not great. >> so you're saying i have a chance. >> definitely a chance.

left-handed i throw my racket accidentally. >> i do that too. >> i'm still working on that. it's not as difficult as i thought it would be. it's just going to take repetition. >> i thought i was out of here. >> good play. >> good job. >> what else have you been working on. >> now the man who many describe is a hard-charging workaholic whose life was road mapped by a hollywood movie looking for other stories. >> that's great we should crack some of those. >> including his own to inspire others. >> if your life story or this last chapter were in a pitch meeting what kind of story is it, triumph over adversity, a love story? >> you could name it all it's triumph of the human spirit not just my standpoint by my friends who rallied so hard and just the amount of love and prayers and all of those thing that's were coming to me that, you know, i could actually feel them. i felt lifted up by them.

i know how many people were caring about me. >> seven, eight, nine, 30. >> want to the talk about fierce my girl is fierce. >> the next chapter of this story now left in jonathan's capable hands. >> five, six, seven and nine, beauty. good job duty. >> we will be right back. . >> announcer: this special edition of "nightline" is brought to you by -- nissan.

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♪ as we say good night, a special thanks to jonathan koch his entire family and doctor cody and his team at ucla and our thoughts are with all those waiting to change

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