ADRIAN'S STORY

When Adrian Villaruz of Springfield began donating blood at LMBB in June 2000, little did he realize that his own body would need lifesaving transfusions only two years later.
On March 26, 2002, Adrian, 40, was co-piloting a helicopter near Shasta Lake in California for an Oregon logging company. While returning from a log drop, the rotor blade stopped, the engine lost power and the helicopter crashed into a tree. The tree broke the fall but the fuel ignited.

The pilot died upon impact, but Adrian somehow managed to climb out of the wreckage, although he has no idea how he escaped. A ground crew found him wandering around the woods, badly burned and dazed. Adrian was airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, CA, and then transferred to UC Davis Medical Center. Doctors kept him in an induced coma for seven weeks while applying skin grafts to his burns, which covered 60% of his body. His treatment also included many transfusions of blood components.

After three months at UC Davis, Adrian was able to come home to Oregon where he continued receiving skin grafts for the next two years.

Throughout his recovery and convalescent period, Adrian promised himself that he would donate blood again. Finally, on February 27, 2004, he achieved that goal, knowing first-hand that it could well help save another person's life.

Wendy Sampson, Adrian's fiancée before his accident, stayed with him throughout his whole ordeal. "I was so overwhelmed by what she was giving up for me..." he said, "I had to marry that girl!" Adrian and Wendy were married on April 1, 2004.