Blood for Billy

Billy Meers is four years old. Unless he gets at least a pint of blood a day, Billy Meers will die soon of renal edema, a kidney disease characterized by leakage of blood proteins into the urine. There are hundreds of patients like Billy in the U.S. Their blood needs are so extravagant that most doctors and hospitals give up the fight quickly, and the patient dies.

But the Baylor University Hospital blood bank in Dallas has been generous to Billy. Since September it has given him 227 pints of plasma. Last week, its blood bank dangerously depleted, the hospital decided it could allow the little boy no more blood unless donors would give enough blood to replenish its bank.

Billy's parents were frantic. They saw the child's face and fingers swell, saw him grow fretful and throw his toys on the floor. They have given all of their own blood that they can. Meanwhile papers all over the U.S. took up the cause. Result: hundreds of donors volunteered to give blood. Cartons of plasma arrived from Boston and Washington; 300 WACs at Chanute Field, Ill. arranged to give a pint of blood apiece. At week's end the Baylor Hospital's blood bank was again in the black; the interminable transfusions began again.

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