ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at the Hidden Brain podcast. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Amy Connor. In February 2003, Connor went into labor. She was pregnant with twin boys, William and James, but it was a full 10 weeks before her due date. After the birth, the twins were put in the neonatal intensive care unit. Both boys were struggling, and James needed a blood transfusion. But the hospital didn't have any blood that matched.
AMY CONNOR: Without it, he might die. So they put out the call, obviously, probably, I think, through the Red Cross, and they told us that we could also put out the call for people to come and donate for James. We sent out emails to all of our friends and family, but, you know, sitting there and waiting to find out if your child is going to get something that they need to live or die is - it's sort of surreal. I've never experienced anything like that before, or again, thank God.
The hospital told us that they had never had so many people show up to donate for a single person. I think the number was 29 people showed up in 24 hours to donate blood for James. And in all of those people, one of them was a match. When they came back and told us that there was one match out of all of those, you know, it's not even just a sigh of relief. It's like you release all of this breath in your body that you didn't even know you were holding. And so James was able to get the blood that he needed. Because of HIPAA laws, everything is, I don't want to say secret, but private, and we'll never know who the match was for James. And the person who donated will never know that they were the match, either. So somewhere out there in the world is somebody who saved my son's life, and I will never know them.
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CONNOR: If I had them in front of me and I could thank them, what I would say is this one little act that took them probably, I don't know, half an hour or an hour out of their lives, changed so many people's lives.
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CONNOR: They are solely responsible for the fact that he lived and the fact that he has grown up and that he will someday have a family. I don't think there are words to say thank you enough for something like that, so my unsung hero will always be unsung.
SHAPIRO: That's Amy Connor of Northport, New York. James and his brother William are 22 years old now and thriving. James loves running marathons and is looking forward to graduating college in December. You can find more stories of unsung heroes and learn how to submit your own at hiddenbrain.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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