The Leighis Chronicles:
A Woman from Chadwicks
Part Four

Blood of Chester, Norristown, and Coatesville

How One Doctor Gave Life To Many
And How One Of Those People Made
That Life Worth Living

May 16, 2019

The McDonough Family lived in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1958. The red dot is the rough location
of their row home in the Highland Gardens neighborhood. The Delaware River is seen to the right
in this photograph. (The photograph is courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture
and the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 1958.)

Many people worked together for a common goal – the life of one woman, my mother, Alice McDonough.  People living in Chester, Norristown, Coatesville, Lima, Trainer, Prospect Park, Philadelphia, and other communities in Pennsylvania helped save my mother.

James McDonough, my father, coordinated efforts with the doctors to secure blood donors.  You see, at that time in the 1950’s, in many cases, patients had to supply their own sources of blood for surgeries or patients had to guarantee that they would re-supply the hospitals with blood to replace the amount that was used in their surgical procedures.

“Fresh” blood was needed for use in the heart/lung machines.  Donors who had been tested to determine that their blood would be compatible with the patient would arrive at the hospital shortly before the actual surgery to donate their blood.

Dr. Robert P. Glover and others on his team spent weekends in Chester testing people to see if they had the correct blood type – A. Rh. positive.

James McDonough secured support from both labor and management at his place of employment, Sun Shipyard in Chester.  Members of the local union at Sun Shipyard, neighbors, and others lined up to be tested to provide the blood needed for my mother to have her second heart surgery.  My father explained that Sun Shipyard provided a guarantee that any additional blood needed, beyond the blood raised, would be paid for by the company.  (I’m told that the guarantee was not used because my father and the doctors were able to secure all of the needed blood.)

In the cabinet near my mother’s bed were notes listing the people who gave blood to sustain her life.  Some of the names were recognizable to me from photos of Chester in the 1950’s.  But I did not recognize most of the names.  While I was never able to personally say “Thank You” to all of them, I did have the opportunity to personally thank four of them.

Two of the men listed introduced themselves at my father’s funeral in 1993.  One came up to me and poked me in the chest.  He said “You’re here because of me.”  I knew what he meant.  I was able to say “Thank You” to both of those men at that funeral.

Shortly after my mother’s funeral in 2009, I was able to locate two other men who had donated blood in 1958.  Both wished to remain anonymous but both hailed from the suburbs of Philadelphia – one in West Norriton, one in Lower Providence.  Both men gave blood through the request that my father had made to Local 428 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry in Norristown.  My father and both of these men were plumber steamfitters. (This union local is now part of a larger local that includes ten counties in eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania.)

I expressed my deep thanks to both of those men for what they did in 1958.

One of the men explained that he remembered seeing my mother at The Presbyterian Hospital.  She was in a room there, he explained, and looked in bad shape.  Both men were proud that they could help.

Among others listed in the notes were two employees of Lukens Steel in Coatesville.

I was proud to see that companies like Sun and Lukens Steel worked together with their local unions to help one family.

Recall that I don’t believe in coincidences.

In 1990, I was able to personally thank the leader of Sun at a function in Orlando, Florida.  We were both there to attend a meeting of the American National Red Cross.  I treasured the fact that I could express my family’s appreciation to Sun for its leadership in 1958.  The likelihood that we would both be in the same place at the same time was more than a coincidence.

I did not know of the involvement of the Lukens Steel employees until seeing those notes in my mother’s cabinet in 2009.

The family that had run Lukens Steel during the 1950’s is now among leaders in philanthropy in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  In recent years, I was able to thank that family – the Huston family – for their leadership.

You see, the Huston family helped with a community project in recent years.  In 2007, we worked together to provide 20,000 diapers for families of the Pennsylvania National Guard in six counties in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Part Five of this series will detail the involvement of the United States Army in saving my mother’s life.

If you have a question or a suggestion about nursing,

please contact Richard McDonough at leighischronicles@gmail.com.

Your question or suggestion may be used in a future news column.

© 2019 Richard McDonough