THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702020142
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 52 lines
Renee Wilson is looking for the man who saved her life a few days after she was born.
Doctors diagnosed Wilson with a blood disorder that required her to have a complete transfusion. Her condition worsened quickly, and when she was 3 days old, a plea was put out for compatible blood, said her mother, Ann Wilson.
It was in the middle of the night in June 1966, and only three people were on the list of potential donors.
Despite the late hour, a Newport News man who shared her rare blood type answered the call. He arrived at Riverside Regional Medical Center and replaced all of her blood with his.
The man quietly left the hospital at 3 a.m. The Wilsons never talked to him.
Now, Renee Wilson is 30 and on a mission to find the donor who saved her life. She has spent the past five years trying to track him down. Neither the hospital nor her pediatrician has records of the transfusion.
``It was like a big loophole,'' she said. ``Everyone sent me to everyone else.''
Wilson wants nothing more than to thank him.
``If he had said no, I would have been dead,'' said Wilson, who now lives in Richmond. ``He easily could have said no. He didn't. He jumped up. No one told him who it was for. I just want to give him a hug and say `thank you for not saying no, thank you for getting up.' ''
In hopes of locating him, Wilson wrote to NBC's ``Unsolved Mysteries'' program. The segment, called ``Blood Ties,'' was filmed in April and aired Friday night. The show has a 60 percent success rate in solving cases such as Wilson's, said Tim Rogan, coordinating producer for the show.
Ann Wilson told her daughter about the transfusion when she was a teen-ager.
``I didn't believe her; I thought she was pulling my leg,'' Renee Wilson said.
The donor would probably be in his 60s now, Ann Wilson said.
When he came to the hospital, he was not told who he was helping. But somehow, he found out the name and address of the family.
Six weeks after the Wilsons brought Renee home, there was a knock on the door. It was the man who had given his blood. Renee was sleeping and Ann Wilson was so startled that she didn't let him in.
``I couldn't figure out how he knew who we were.''
After the visit, Ann Wilson sent the donor a letter to thank him for saving her baby. However, she has forgotten his name and address.
``I think there's a good chance he still lives here,'' she said. ``He seemed like a very nice man.''