Five years ago, Stuart was crossing a busy street when he was struck by a passenger van. He sustained multiple injuries, including traumatic brain injury, broken limbs and severe injuries to the arteries connected to his heart. Stuart was dead at the scene until he was resuscitated by an off duty firefighter.
At the hospital he was rushed into emergency surgery for nearly 15 hours to repair the tears to his aortic arch. The surgical team used 38 units of blood to sustain him. Midway through the surgery, doctors reported to Stuart’s family that they had used every unit of blood available in the area and only a couple of units of packed cells of the type they needed remained in the region. “If he needs more blood, we’re in trouble,” the surgeon told them. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘You mean my son might die because there’s not enough donated blood?’” says Stuart’s mother, Martha.
“Stuart did make it and he’s doing just fine, and part of the reason why is that 38 people I will never know cared enough to donate their blood to someone they would never meet,” Martha says. Today Stuart is a full time college student who’s also working toward his black belt. “Every year on the anniversary of the accident we celebrate my son’s real birthday—the day God gave him back to us and the day we realized that thanks to 38 strangers who cared, we would get to keep him.”