Amy Connor (left) along with her son, James Connor.
Amy Connor
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Amy Connor
This story is a part of the My Unsung Hero sequence, from the Hidden Mind workforce. It options tales of individuals whose kindness left an enduring impression on another person.
In February 2003, Amy Connor was pregnant with twin boys. Someday, she went into labor — a full 10 weeks earlier than her due date. After the delivery, her sons, William and James, had been each struggling.
“Considered one of them, his coronary heart stored stopping. The opposite one was on quite a lot of oxygen and his retina separated and so they thought he was going to be blind. It was a really dramatic time for us,” Connor recalled.
Docs advised the household that James, the newborn on oxygen, wanted a blood transfusion. However there was a difficulty — infants born prematurely can solely be transfused with blood that meets a lot stricter necessities than blood used for adults. The hospital did not have any blood that met the necessities for donating to untimely infants.
”However (the transfusion) was completely crucial and with out it, he may die,” Connor mentioned.
Rapidly, the hospital put out a name to its donation organizations.
”(And) they advised us that we had been (additionally) in a position to put out a name. Anybody might come into the hospital and donate for a particular particular person in the event that they wished to,” Connor mentioned.
This was over 20 years in the past, earlier than social media existed. So, Connor and her household took the old school strategy: e mail.
”We despatched out emails to all of our family and friends, and so they clearly despatched them out to all of their family and friends. (Then) we simply form of sat there not likely figuring out if anybody would reply or if any of them could be a match,” Connor remembered.
“Sitting there and ready to seek out out in case your baby goes to get one thing that they should reside or die is form of surreal. I’ve by no means skilled something like that earlier than.”
The wait turned out to be value it. In whole, almost 30 folks confirmed as much as the hospital to donate blood for James. Amongst these, just one was a match.
”Once they got here again and advised us that there was one match, (it wasn’t) even only a sigh of aid. It is such as you launch all of this breath in your physique that you just did not even know you had been holding.”
James acquired the blood he wanted to outlive. He and his brother are actually 22, and thriving.
Connor and her household won’t ever know who donated the blood that saved James’ life. Because of privateness legal guidelines, the hospital was not in a position to inform the household, or the donor, whose blood was ultimately used within the transfusion.
”If I had them in entrance of me and I might inform them or thank them, what I’d say is that this: (that) one little act that took them most likely half an hour or an hour out of their lives modified so many individuals’s lives,” Connor mentioned tearfully.
“They’re solely answerable for the truth that (James) lived, and the truth that he has grown up and that he’ll sometime have a household. And I’ll by no means ever know who they’re. I do not assume there are phrases to say thanks sufficient for one thing like that.”
My Unsung Hero can be a podcast — new episodes are launched each Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Mind workforce, document a voice memo in your telephone and ship it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
