From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

Hi, Shankar. My unsung hero is a Frenchman.

She had given me exactly what I needed in that time.

I was fortunate enough to survive with the help of this man, this doctor, who went out of his way to help save my life.

Today's story comes from Amy Connor.

In February 2003, Amy 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. 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, is, it's sort of surreal. I've, I've, 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

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