Boy Donates Blood to Keep Twin Brother Alive, Sees a Dozen People Coming to Help — Story of the Day

A little boy, desperate to save his twin brother with whom he shares a rare blood type, reaches out for help. The response he gets from complete strangers stuns the family.

Oliver, Shaun, and their parents were on their way to a ball game when the terrible accident happened. Oliver was strapped into his seat, but Shaun, as usual, was playing the fool.

His mom turned in her seat to scold him, and that was when the other car smashed into them at the intersection. Mom and dad's airbags deployed, and Oliver's seat belt held him in place, but Shaun wasn't so lucky.

When the car stopped spinning, Shaun fell across his mom's lap, broken. Oliver would never forget the dazed fear, the quiet voices of the paramedics, and the screech as the firemen cut through the steel of the car.

"Shaun!" Oliver screamed. "Wake up, please wake up!" But Shaun didn't answer. He lay there, eyes closed. The paramedics were talking to his mom: "Please, Ma'am, don't move him, OK? We'll have him out in seconds."

We are all humans, one blood, one family, and we need to look out for one another.

Oliver's mom was crying and calling for Oliver and Shaun, and their dad. That was when Oliver saw that his dad's eyes were closed too and he was slumping forward, held up by his seatbelt.

Then there were gentle hands lifting him out, and he was carried out of the car and into an ambulance. "My brother, my dad!" Oliver kept crying, and a gentle voice told him to close his eyes, that everything would be alright.

When Oliver woke up, he was in the hospital. He had some scratches, and a bump where his head had hit the side window, but he was OK. "My brother!" he cried. "Where is Shaun?"

Immediately, a nurse was by his side. "Calm down," she said. "Your mom is talking to the doctor, and she'll be with you in a moment."

Oliver waited until she turned her back and he scampered off the gurney. His mom was standing six feet away talking to a dour-looking man in a white coat. "...we stopped the bleeding, but we can't operate without an adequate supply of blood, Mrs. Torville. Unfortunately, your son is B negative. We will have to wait until we can find donors..."

"I'm the same blood type," Oliver cried, hobbling forward. "He's my twin, my identical twin!"

The doctor turned and looked at Oliver. "Son," he said gently. "You're much too young. We can't take blood from you."

"I don't care!" Oliver cried. "Please, mom, tell them they can. We can't let Shaun die!"

"I'm sorry," the doctor repeated firmly.

But Oliver stood his ground. He stepped forward and took his mom's hand and squeezed it.

"If he needed bone marrow you'd take it from me, wouldn't you?" Oliver asked. "One of my friends gave it to his little sister and it hurt a lot. If you can take marrow, you can take blood!"

"Oliver," the doctor said gently. "You may have a point, but you are so small. What we can take from you will never be enough for surgery."

"But will it help him now?" asked Oliver. "Will it help him wait?"

The doctor hesitated. "It's forbidden. I... I would lose my license."

Oliver's mom placed a hand on her son's shoulder. "And I could lose my son! Please call your superior."

Oliver didn't hear what his mom said to the chief of staff, but a little later, he was sitting in a comfortable chair, and donating the blood his brother so desperately needed.

It didn't take very long. The bag hanging over Oliver didn't look like it held a lot of blood at all. "Mom," he said. "Will that be enough?"

"No, honey," Oliver's mom said hugging him. "But maybe it will help a little. They will give it to Shaun now, to help compensate for the blood loss. We have to hope another hospital has the units they need for the surgery."

"Can I see him?" Oliver asked, and his mom led him into a room full of beeping machines. Shaun was lying on the bed, dead white and very still.

"He's got to be OK, mom!" Oliver whispered. "He's got to!"

Oliver's mom smiled bravely. "Honey, he will be. Dad's woken up, and he's going to be fine. Shaun will be too, you will see."

They went to visit his dad, then Mrs. Torville left Oliver with one of the receptionists and went to speak to Shaun's doctor. Oliver sat there for a long time thinking. Then he had an idea.

"Please, can I go on your computer?" he asked the receptionist, who was very busy arguing with an old lady with an ice pack wrapped around her hand, and a scrawny dog under her arm that wouldn't stop barking.

"Sure, just be back quickly," the woman said, and waved a hand at Oliver, too distracted to pay much attention to what he had said. Delighted, Oliver logged in to his mom's Facebook account.

He picked out one of the photos she had of him and Shaun and reposted it. "URGENT," he wrote. "My brother is at St. Felicity Hospital. He is waiting for surgery, but the hospital needs Type B negative blood. Please, help us. If you're out there, please donate blood and save his life."

Oliver had just finished posting when a voice intruded. "What do you think you're doing?" It was the receptionist, and she didn't look at all happy with Oliver.

Oliver tried to explain, but the woman made him go and sit in the waiting room. "The cheek of it!" she said. "Messing with my computer! Wait till your mom hears about it!"

But when Oliver's mom showed up, she looked so sad and discouraged that the woman didn't say a word. "Mom," Oliver whispered. "What's wrong?"

Mrs. Torville didn't answer. She just put her arms around Oliver and held him very tight. "Mom?" Oliver said. "Can you go on your phone, and see if there are any messages on Facebook?"

Mrs. Torville frowned. "At a time like this, Oliver, honestly..."

"Mom, I went on Facebook and asked for blood for Shaun. Maybe someone answered!" Oliver cried anxiously. "Please, mom, we need to look."

Oliver's mom logged on and checked. "Sorry, honey," she said. "Maybe later, OK?"

Every hour or so, Oliver asked his mom to check, but still, there were no replies. Eventually, Oliver fell asleep, his head on his mother's lap, still waiting for news.

Oliver woke with his mom shaking him hard. "Oliver!" she cried. "Wake up, wake up!"

Oliver sat up, rubbing his eyes. Why was his mom so excited? She had a big grin on her face, and there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You did it, Oliver!" she sobbed. "You did it!" She pointed towards a group of people. "Look! Those people are here to donate blood for Shaun!" she explained. "Some of them came from hundreds of miles away! You saved your brother's life, Oliver! You saved Shaun!"

That night, Shaun underwent an operation that saved his life, thanks to Oliver's determination and courage and the donors' gift.

What can we learn from this story?

• Never give up hope. Someone somewhere will hear your prayer. Oliver was sad when it seemed that no one was responding to his appeal until he saw the donors arrive at the hospital.
• We are all one family. There are no strangers. We are all humans, one blood, one family, and we need to look out for one another.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a homeless teen mom who abandons her newborn twin babies so they can have a better future. But years later, she comes back into their lives.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.