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 John.

We're using only his and his daughter's middle names

so he can speak frankly about her medical condition.

When John's daughter Keene was 12, she began having symptoms almost overnight.

She developed ticks, had sudden emotional outbursts, and became terrified to let her feet touch the floor.

Then one day, on the first warm day of the year,

John convinced her to get into their firewood wagon so they could take a short walk.

She hadn't been outside to really enjoy herself, except to maybe get carried to a car and go to a doctor

appointment or something. She hadn't been outside, three months. And I was just beaming that she was

getting some fresh air. You know, I just sensed like a truck coming down the road. There's not much

traffic on this little street. And then I heard this, this voice out of nowhere. It just said,

you are so great. You're a great dad. And you, young lady, you are awesome.

You keep going, girl. You keep going. We were frozen and joyful shock about what was happening.

This sweet guy was just praising us this little old man this big old white

truck just beaming at us smiling at us ear to ear like we had made his day and i said thank you sir

thank you so much your words mean more than you know and that's it he just waved without looking

...