Volunteers' blankets aim to bundle up sick with hope

© Copyright East Valley Tribune 2007. All rights reserved.
April 17, 2007 JOHN LEPTICH, TRIBUNE

The story of a handmade blanket given to a couple's seriously ill 3-day-old son last Christmas moved Sally Borg to duplicate the gesture in a big way.

Borg, a Scottsdale resident and a manager at Blood Systems Inc., learned that friends Susan and Jeff Hatfield's newborn, Zane, received a blanket as part of a project by middle school students in Florida, where the couple was when Zane was born.

Pediatricians at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Fla., diagnosed Zane, who was in its neonatal intensive care unit for 17 days, with Trisomy 18. It's a syndrome that affects about one out of 3,000 live births. It's caused by the presence of an extra No. 18 chromosome, which leads to multiple abnormalities. The disease has a very high mortality rate. Many of the abnormalities make it hard for infants to live longer than a few months.

"Jeff had been somewhat of a skeptic, but said that this small gesture of a blanket changed the way he looked at the world," Borg said. "He was surprised that people like kids who didn't know him or his family would do something like this for his sick child."

Hatfield and his wife in February 2006 quit their jobs, sold their Phoenix home, truck and a number of possessions, and bought a 30-foot motor home. They and 2-year-old son Justin hit the road with the goal of seeing all of the national parks in the lower 48 states in about a year.

On the fifth day of their journey, the Hatfields learned Susan was pregnant. They decided to continue and planned to visit friends in Florida about the time Susan was scheduled to give birth.

"The blanket was a small act of kindness that came at a time when we were going out of our minds because our son was so sick," Jeff Hatfield said recently while visiting Borg and friends, and taking the children to a Valley doctor.

Zane is doing well; his father said he still has occasional seizures but "is doing better than statistics would suggest and what we expected."

The family has nine national parks to visit and will end its trip in June.

"We walked into the neonatal intensive care unit on Christmas and there was a blanket and a card," Hatfield continued. "Face it, you can go buy blankets better than these at Target, but the fact that people who didn't know us would do this for Zane helped us at a perfect time. It's something that will always be with me. It's an unbelievable gesture."

Thirty students from the National Junior Honor Society at Bonita Springs (Fla.) Middle School made 60 blankets and distributed them at the Fort Myers hospital.

Borg was as moved by the story as the Hatfields were and took up the cause in Scottsdale. She has enlisted the help of coworkers at Blood Systems - the corporate office of United Blood Services - and collected more than $1,000 in donations there and at a Phoenix Coyotes hockey game at Jobing.com Arena.

The group, Blankets of Love, purchased enough fleece for 400 blankets and will begin distributing them to hospitals in May. "Rather than make five or 10 blankets, I think together we can make a big difference," Borg said. "We distributed the fleece to people at work who brought it home and even gave some to neighbors and friends. Some hospitals have said they'll take as many as they can get. Others want 40 at a time.

"It feels really good inside for me to do this," Borg added. "You don't realize how powerful one person can be doing something like this. A teacher in Florida had kids make blankets, not realizing what an impact it would make 2,200 miles away. It's heartwarming. I get choked up talking about it. People forget the power of making a difference."

Jeff Hatfield said he and his wife are thrilled by Borg's efforts. "As a parent, the whole thing is priceless," he said. "We were truly touched by the gesture and Sally picking up on it."

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