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.

Hello, I would like to thank my unsung hero.

He invited me to come over for Christmas because we're both. I just want to say thank you.

Today's story comes from Susan Dickman. One afternoon in 2003, Susan was finishing up her work day

when she spotted six missed calls from the hospital. Her dad, who had recently been diagnosed with leukemia, was there for a lung biopsy.

I hopped on my bike and I raced over to the hospital.

When I got there, I was really stressed out. I was feeling in panic

mode because I knew it couldn't be good. I got into the elevator and I just started pressing buttons. I somehow couldn't remember

what floor he was on and suddenly from behind I felt someone's hand on my shoulder and I didn't turn around.

At first I felt sort of defensive, but then I relaxed into it and that person gave me this, just sort of this very brief moment of calm in what I knew was probably going to be a pretty bad end of the day.

I got up to the floor that I needed to be on.

I ran over to my father's room,

and I was greeted by doctors who told me

that he had passed away.

When I thought about it later,

I realized that probably the person who had put their hand on my back probably worked in the hospital, probably knew that there had

been a code read called when my father stopped breathing.

I think about that hand on my back pretty often,

and I think what a heroic, small but heroic gesture that was to just reach out physically to somebody who was

obviously struggling and I just feel like that person must have known what I was what I was walking into when I got off that elevator.

That's my unsung hero.

...