Saturday, April 29, 2006

My One Reason


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Liam Matthew Gorman
21 Months Old

This is Liam. Liam suffers from a rare disorder called Transfusion Dependent Transient Erythroblastopenia of Childhood. Yes, it is a real disease despite the atroscious name. The Wiki definition mentions that most patients recover in 1-2 months. This is not Liam's case. The tubing in the picture is giving him a transfusion of A+ blood. If he did not get this transfusion, we would not be looking at the picture of a little boy. It would be a coffin.

How do I know Liam? Well, to be honest I don't. I know Liam's father, Tony "Doc Croc" Gorman. Doc Croc is a NYC Paramedic who I partnered with on the drive down to Texas during Hurricane Rita. To be honest, while I often say I drove through the Hurricane, it was actually Croc at the wheel down I-20 from Louisianna into Texas during the worst of the storm.

Once we were down there he was always working above and beyond, always in the thick of it. Every other night we would drive two hours for an internet connection via wireless broadband (believe it or not there was no Verizon or Nextel service where we were in Sabine County) so I could send the status reports and files to our company back home. Croc was with us for only two weeks down there, because on one of those nights when we had cell service he learned Liam was in the hospital. He flew out two days later at the pre-scheduled tour change, taking someone else's seat on the plane, and that marked the beginning of life with TEC for him and his family.

It is now six months plus since being down there... and Liam has become transfusion dependent to battle the anemia. To help Liam and his family there is going to be a Charity Blood Drive in his name. Here are the details:

• Date: Saturday April 29th 2006 (FDNY BEMS Platoon A is off)
• Time: 8:00am (0800) to 3:00pm (1500)
• Place: New York Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street Ground Floor, New York City, NY 10028
• Phone: (800) 933-2566
• WWW: http://www.nybloodcenter.org
• E-Mail for this drive: antgorman@verizon.net

Now I know there are a lot of people reading this who would not be able to make it to New York to give blood... but I bet there are quite a few who could. Another thing we have been trying to work is getting local donations credited to Liam's name. The Red Neck West Virginians are organizing their own drive with this exact purpose in mind. I could go on a tirade about helping others and so on, but this is not the post for it. This is the post where I hope to inspire some people to help Liam or someone like him... just as his father has done time and time again. What's right is right.

There are a million reasons why you should give blood. This one is mine. If you could make it yours as well, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

-NYC Watchdog
APODB

Posted by New York City's Watchdog :: 4/29/2006 02:00:00 PM :: Permalink :: 15 Bones Added to the Pile

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