Published: November 30, 2007 03:50 pm         

WANTED: Unidentified Samaritan

Unknown man saved baby’s life; today, 6-month old hopes for cancer-free status

By Leslie Gibson

Herald-Banner Staff



Quickly and with confidence, the man took the non-breathing baby from her mother’s arms, and began to bring her back to life. As the life-saving episode took place on the shoulder of the road, traffic rushed by.

The woman hugged Kristina Harding, the mother of then 8-week old Reese Addison Harding, and dialed 911 on Harding’s cell phone, while the man placed the baby in the back seat of the Harding’s car.

He then said, “I think she just took a breath, we need to get to the hospital.” He jumped into the driver’s seat, Harding went into the back, and he whipped the car around through the turn-around between the east and west bound lanes of State Highway 66 near the sign which says “You are entering Rockwall.”

He sped to Lake Pointe Medical, and dropped the mother and daughter off at the emergency room door; the pair went straight to the medical area.

In a few moments, the man returned with the car keys and cell phone and was gone.

To this day, neither Harding nor her husband Erik know the identity of the man and woman who saved their daughter’s life that Saturday afternoon on July 28, as Harding returned home from a routine trip to Target.

“She was sitting in the car seat in the back and I was by myself driving and she started crying,” Harding recalled in an interview just before Thanksgiving. “I was trying to reach back there and give her a toy.”

After all, she had been back at work two weeks, her baby was healthy and gaining weight, and she thought little Reese was fussy after the shopping trip. Being in the right-hand lane, she started signaling to get over to the shoulder, but was having no luck getting a yield.

Within seconds, Harding realized Reese was not just fussy. “She started screaming really loud and then she was still screaming loud but not making as much noise. I slammed on the brakes to get behind the cars and get to the side,” she said.

On the shoulder, she jumped out and opened the back door. “At that point she was not making any noise but as I was unbuckling her, her lips started turning blue and I was trying to dial 911 and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to take care of this situation.” Her baby turned pale.

Then a man and woman, having parked their white SUV on the median, rushed across the two lanes of traffic. That is when the baby was saved.

Now, as Christmas approaches, the family waits to learn if their daughter is free of cancer — a cancer which revealed itself that day on SH66.

It was a golf ball-sized tumor pressing on the windpipe of Reese that July day which caused the stoppage of breath.

That same tumor stopped the breathing one more time within a few hours of the noon episode. Then however, Harding and Reese were just exiting the air-ambulance helicopter at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.

The next morning, an oncologist, Dr. Meaghan Granger, gave Erik and Kristina, who had been joined by Kristina’s mother, Sherie Hockaday, the news that the tumor was neuroblastoma cancer.

By the next day, Erik’s mother, Patty Harding, had arrived from Boston. The three-hour surgery required that the child’s lungs be collapsed and the surgeon, Dr. James Miller, enter from the back.

Reese recovered well and went for scans in early September, which revealed three more little tumors. Four rounds of chemotherapy have now been complete, each taking a three-day visit to Cook’s.

At home, Reese is a happy baby, her mother says. Harding gives daily shots in Reese’s thigh to improve the white blood counts, but Reese sometimes doesn’t even know it, Harding said.

Harding won’t drive by herself, but expects that fear to clear when she learns Reese is cancer-free.

The entire family is devoted to care of Reese. Aunts from both sides and the grandmothers have stayed in the home to help out while Erik, a supervisor at L3 Communications in Greenville, works, having used all his vacation. Kristina has quit work and stays home to care for Reese.

Reese has been in “social isolation” since September, in order to stay healthy throughout chemo. However, her white blood cell counts were so high Wednesday before Thanksgiving, they took an outing to sit on Santa’s lap for pictures.

The next day, during the interview, Reese slept, and then played. Nothing except the very recent loss of hair, would indicate the child has been in chemo or has cancer. She is 15 pounds, with intelligent eyes, and perfectly formed.

Her parents have been married two and a half years, having moved to Rockwall after she graduated from San Diego State in 2003 and he got out of the Marines in 2002. He and his family are from Boston, and her family is in the Austin area.

They wish very much to find and thank the man and woman who rescued the family that summer day.

Kristina said he has sandy blond hair and is possibly in his mid-30s, and because of the sureness of his actions, may be a fireman or trained in emergency services.

Whoever he is, he has given doctors a chance to save Reese’s life from the childhood cancer, which by the time it is diagnosed in nearly 70 percent of the cases, has spread, according to Lunch for Life, an organization which supports the Children’s Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation (CNCF).

Reese’s was diagnosed as Stage 2B, which means, according to the American Cancer Society, that “the cancer is localized, and may or may not be able to be totally removed by surgery. It is on one side of the body. Nearby lymph nodes outside the tumor contain neuroblastoma cells, but the cancer has not spread to lymph nodes on the other side of the body or elsewhere.”

Neuroblastoma is a cancer of the sympathetic nervous system which includes the spinal cord and adrenal glands. Many researchers believe neuroblastomas develop when normal fetal neuroblasts fail to become mature nerve cells or adrenal cells, according to the American Cancer Society. Why this occurs is not known. Neuro refers to nerves, and blastoma refers to cancer of immature cells.

Symptoms are usually “very unclear” according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute. They can include the “strange changes” such a cancer can produce in patients, according to CNCF, such as constant diarrhea. Neuroblastoma can affect rotary eye movements and cause muscle spasms.

Reese’s young age, the fact that she is female, and that the tumor was in the neck make Reese’s case more encouraging for complete recovery, the doctor told the family. It is often diagnosed when the child is 18 months or so and it occurs slightly more often in males, according to Cook Children’s. It is often present at birth, but not detected until the tumor begins to grow and compress the surrounding organs.

“Reese continues to feel much better since coming home and continues to do everything a 6-month old should, we are very blessed for that,” wrote her mother recently in a Care Pages site for Cook Children’s Hospital.

As the family gathered for their quiet Thanksgiving at home in Rockwall, they gave thanks for the unknown man who saved Reese’s life. It is their holiday hope and prayer that he will receive their thanks and know that his courageous actions will be eternally remembered by the family.