Ricky Lewis was telling the truth; he hadn't seriously thought about any of it. That afternoon, he received a call from the hospital saying that Frederick Richardson had been diagnosed with bone cancer after the car accident and required a bone marrow transplant. As Frederick's son, Ricky naturally had the responsibility to do a bone marrow matching test.
Actually, on the way to the hospital, he struggled for a long time. Several times at the crossroads, he thought about turning back; he didn't want to do the bone marrow matching.
But he also held onto a glimmer of hope. The odds of success for parent-offspring matching are extremely low, reportedly at less than 10%, so he thought, let's go - even if it meant giving back every last drop of his blood to Frederick.
He initially thought all of it would be done silently, and that no one would know about him getting a blood test for the bone marrow matching.
