MORGANTOWN – WTHR has been flooded with phone calls, offers to help a Morgantown family that made a plea on our air Wednesday night. They agreed to go public after a tragedy in the hope their story would raise awareness about bone marrow donation. It has, and may in fact spur what they call a miracle, a story of hope to tell.

Sunday night outside Chattanooga, Tennessee life changed in an instant for the Parrish family. Coming back from a Florida vacation their van clipped a semi and rolled.  Four of five children inside, ages 20 months to seven sleeping in the back, were ejected.

Five-year-old Nicholas was trapped under the van.  Father Tracy Parrish says, “We located all the children except for Tony.”

Tony, their seven-year-old was 25 feet away dying of a head wound. Mother Terri Parrish remembers, “I thought if I talked to him he’d stay conscious. I told him I loved him.”

But they lost him, and with him his half sister Erin’s hope for long term survival. Born with a rare blood disease, Erin will need a bone marrow transplant within 10 years to survive. Out of the entire family, Tony, her half brother, was the only one who matched her.

But the drugs the doctors used to try to save Tony’s life rendered the match impossible.

The family wonders why God took him.

There are no answers now, only a family’s prayer that a little boy’s death will spur someone to give his sister life.  The family says that if they can even raise awareness of the general need for bone marrow donors they can put something good after something bad.

It takes a simple blood test to find out if you’re a match.  Then you can decide whether you want to go through with it. You’re not obligated. The Parishes figure they have 10 years to find a match for Erin.

If you would like to register to become a volunteer with the national marrow donor program call the Central Indiana Regional Blood Center at 916-5112. Leave your name and address, they will send you information in the mail.