By Keith Oppenheim, Red Cross writer

It was early October at the Town Hall in Standish, Maine where Darci Petrov pretty much knows everyone. Her 38-year-old brother J.J., often shy and uncomfortable in the spotlight, was doing his best to keep it together.

“J.J. does not like attention at all,” said Darci. “But I love planning a party. We reached out to anyone who had a hand in saving J.J.’s life and asked them to donate blood and really have a bit of a celebration here.”

The blood drive celebration was held exactly 10 years after a very bad day in J.J. Hanson’s life.  That day was October 6, 2016. At the time, J.J. was working as an arborist in Maine. 

“I always knew it was a dangerous job,” said J.J. “That’s kind of what drew me to it.”

On this particular day, J.J. and his crew were in Bridgton, Maine, using a winch line to haul large loads of branches that they would then feed into a woodchipper.

“A co-worker had pulled a bunch of the winch line and set it off to the side, but never told any of us,” he said. “And that’s when everything went south.”

When J.J. started up the woodchipper, the winch cable recoiled. “It wrapped around my upper legs, pulled me in and was doing a strangling effect,” he said. “Then it slid down to my lower legs, and that’s when it did the most damage.”

The damage included two broken femurs and a crushing blow to his lower vascular system.  Doctors inserted Gore-Tex arteries to save his legs, but after numerous surgeries, one ended up turning cold to the touch.

 J.J.’s wife Lindsay Hanson recalls a tough conversation. “We were told we either needed to give them permission to amputate J.J.’s right leg below the knee - or be prepared to say goodbye to him.”

J.J.’s right leg was amputated, his left leg weakened. But the deeper numbers behind the medical effort were truly staggering. He was on a ventilator for seven days and in the I.C.U. for nine. He underwent a total of 28 surgeries, most in the first weeks of recovery. And to get through all of that, J.J. needed a lot of donated blood.

“I was given, in the end, a total of 126 units of blood and blood products,” said J.J. “The majority of that happened in the first 48 hours because I was losing so much blood internally and externally.”

In his first months of his recovery, J.J. struggled to process all that had happened.

“I was very depressed and sad. I didn’t think I was going to be able to walk again,” remembers J.J.  “We have three kids now, but at the time, we only had our two boys.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to interact with them the way I was used to and wanting to.”

No doubt, the losses were dramatic.  J.J.’s life as an arborist was done. He had to learn to walk with a prosthetic leg on his right side and a brace on his left. But as his wife Lindsay noted, J.J. simply had to adjust and be a fully present father for his three sons.

“He had no choice,” she said.  “He had to figure out, ‘How am I going to play outside with the kids? How am I going to keep up with them?’ And he did. He figured it out.”

Watch J.J. today and you’ll see he figured out how to do a lot; he moves with surprising agility and speed. And listen to him, you’ll hear the voice of a grateful man. He is keenly aware that because 126 people with O-negative blood donated, he is alive today.

“That’s a lot of people,” he says, holding back tears. “That’s a lot of people.”

For the family, it was powerful and overwhelming.  J.J. and Lindsay knew some of the donors.  Many they did not.  J.J. got to talk to staff from LifeFlight, the air-rescue unit that, 10 years earlier, transported him to the hospital.  In the end, the in-person drive collected 26 units of lifesaving blood, but will continue on virtually with the hope of getting all 126 units that were given to J.J. In fact, the family is now talking about holding this blood drive annually.

“There’s a need for it,” says J.J.  “126 people helped to save my life. It’s the least that we could do to pay it forward. And give back.”