Medicine: Victory over Heredity

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When Ida Muia Donnelly was born 24 years ago in Montrose, Pa., she had two strikes against her: from both mother & father (who were first cousins), she had a heritage of Mediterranean anemia, in which the red blood cells are abnormally thin. Ida had a doubly severe case of the disease, which afflicts (generally mildly) many Italians, Greeks, Syrians and Armenians, and their U.S.-born offspring.

Mediterranean anemia cannot be cured by iron treatments or removal of the spleen; it can only be relieved by transfusions of blood containing husky red cells. With good care and many transfusions, Ida grew up into a vivacious, healthy-looking girl. But when she married Raymond Donnelly, who works at a country club, doctors told her that she should never bear a baby.

Ida Donnelly thought differently. She got through the first eight months of pregnancy with the help of occasional transfusions. About three weeks ago, Dr. Savas T. Nittis warned that she would need 15 to 25 pints of blood before the baby was due, and more during the birth and afterward. The Donnellys could not afford $35 a pint, but newspaper appeals brought 1,500 volunteer donors.

To avoid complications in childbirth, the doctors decided upon a Caesarean. Last week, with Dr. Nittis hovering nearby, a technician poured more than a quart of blood into Mrs. Donnelly's veins as two surgeons performed the operation. The patient, under spinal anesthesia, clutched a rosary and a religious medal. When she was told "It's a boy," she murmured "Thank you, dear God," and fell asleep.

In his studies of Mediterranean anemia, Dr. Nittis has never known a victim with so severe a case as Ida Donnelly's to survive for 24 years, let alone carry a child full term. Now she has enough blood credits to last her for years. And 7¼-lb. Raymond Edwin John Donnelly Jr. can thank his father for the fact that his blood seems free of the taint.