Anita's Notebook

The little boy may have saved his sister’s life, but what he asked the doctor afterwards revealed a different side to the story…


THE FIGHTING

There once was a brother and sister that hated each other, a lot.

In fact they fought almost every day and hardly ever had a nice word to say about the other one. That is, until one summer when they both came down with a rare disease and got too sick to say much of anything.

Over time the boy’s immune system was able to develop the right antibodies to overcome the disease, but his sister wasn’t so lucky. She was fading fast and no one expected her to survive much longer on her own.

The doctor who had been treating her sat the little boy down and explained the grave situation to him, asking kindly if he’d be willing to give blood to his sister. To the doctor’s surprise, the boy seemed to hesitate.

THE TRANSFUSION

The boy looked down at the floor and his thoughts seemed very far away. It was some time before he snapped out of it, then he took a deep breath and said

“Okay. I’ll do it, if it’ll save her.”

After hearing this the doctor and nurses wasted no time and immediately got the blood transfusion procedure going.

With wide eyes the boy lay in the hospital bed next to all the machinery and watched as his red blood flowed through the tubes, out of his body.

Later on he watched as his sister in the bed next to him received the blood, and he could plainly see that the color was returning to her cheeks where before they’d been so pale. He smiled at her, but then became very afraid.


THE QUESTION

The boy turned to the doctor and said in a trembling whisper, “C-c-can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, anything,” said the doctor.

“I was just wondering,” said the boy, “…will I start to die right away?”

On hearing that, the doctor almost dropped the clipboard he was holding.

You see, the little boy thought that agreeing to the blood transfusion meant that he had to give *all* his blood to save his sister’s life. He thought now the transfusion was over that he would surely die.

Luckily the boy got good news from the doctor (who was wiping tears from his eyes —like everyone else in the room that heard what the boy said) who told him he wasn’t going to die. After that day both he and his sister made a full recovery and they were even able to leave the hospital in time to enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

The best part about it though is that the two have been the best of friends ever since :).