A six-year-old San Ramon boy was reunited in Oakland Friday with a small group of blood donors who helped keep the boy alive for six years.

Dillon Low came into this world sick, diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a rare genetic disorder that causes low red blood cells.

"He had increased heart rate," said Carol Low, Dillon's mother. "Within minutes they rushed him to the NICU and they immediately gave him a blood transfusion,"

Dillon needed blood transfusions nearly every day for six years until he was able to get his bone marrow transplant in May.

What he never did though was get a chance to meet that core group of people who donated blood, until Friday.

At the Red Cross in Oakland, Dillon met Gail, Harold, Joesph and Mark and so, too, did his mother.
The blood within this group of four was the lifeline for a young boy they only knew as the John Muir baby.

The Red Cross recruited the donors and they said yes.

"They couldn't travel, they couldn't get tattoos or any of the things that could get you deferred," said Jeff Meyer, CEO for the American Red Cross of Northern California blood region.

For the first time, the dedicated donors set their eyes on the John Muir baby.

"To see him just makes it all real," said Gail Grassi, an Oakland resident.

"To know that it helped him it makes a difference, sorry, but anyhow I'm delighted Dillon leads a full life, I know he will," said Harold Teasdale, an Oakland resident.

Low thanked the donors for giving her son life.

"A lot of times we take life for granted, but this is a good opportunity to say, 'Thank you,'" Low said.