Posted on 10/27/2007 1:50:34 PM PDT by Mark
24 years later, recipient of crucial heart surgery gets to thank Nancy Reagan BY RICK COCA, Staff Writer
SIMI VALLEY - When 4-year-old Lee Kil Woo walked onto the White House lawn after arriving on Air Force One in November 1983, he had no idea first lady Nancy Reagan had arranged for him and Ahn Ji Sook, 7, to come to the United States from South Korea to undergo life-saving heart surgeries.
In the years since, his understanding and appreciation over that act of kindness grew, and he wanted to say thank you.
So two years ago, he started researching how to get hold of Reagan. After a conversation with a reporter led to him writing a letter to the former first lady, he got his wish Friday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
"There was a tear in my eye," said Woo - who was adopted with Sook by an Arizona family and given the name Brett Halvorson - about the emotional meeting. "She's my hero. I realize now she did a great thing for me."
Reagan greeted Halvorson in front of a large photo of her hugging him and Sook, now named Diana, as children, shaking his hand and remarking how tall he'd gotten since their last meeting about 20 years ago.
"I don't believe it. I don't believe it," Reagan said when she spotted the 28-year-old Washington state insurance broker.
Halvorson and his adopted sister, who are not blood relatives, came to the United States for their operations through the Gift of Life program, a nonprofit effort begun by the Manhasset Rotary Club in Long Island, New York, to provide life-saving heart surgeries to kids worldwide.
At the time, Nancy Reagan was in South Korea on a diplomatic trip with the president. She was contacted by Harriet Hodges, who worked with the children's program and asked the first lady for help.
The children's trip and subsequent surgeries made headlines throughout the United States.
About two years ago, Halvorson decided he wanted to meet Reagan and thank her personally, but his early efforts to contact her were unsuccessful.
More recently, after tracking down a retired New York Times editor who wrote a story about Halvorson's and his sister's experience with Reagan in the early 1980s, he was able to reach an assistant of Reagan's through the library, Halvorson said.
About two weeks ago, he was asked to write Reagan a letter, which led to an invitation to meet at the library Friday.
"I'm nervous. I'm excited," he said before the reunion.
Priscilla Halvorson, who also has two biological children, attended Friday's meeting. Brett and Diana, whom she adopted about a year after their surgeries, share a special bond, but still had the typical sibling rivalries growing up, she said.
One of the Gift of Life founders, Robbie Donno, said kids who go through the program typically go on to succeed in life because they have a tangible reminder of what someone else did to keep them alive.
"The rest of their lives, the scar on their chest is a reminder that someone saved their life," he said.
The program began in 1975. By 1983, the group had sponsored nearly 100 children for the procedure, he said. That number skyrocketed after Reagan decided to get involved.
Today, the Gift of Life and the scores of other participating Rotary clubs around the world have helped nearly 10,000 kids worldwide, Donno said.
Given that the surgeries are risky, Reagan's desire to help was courageous, he said.
"She's a brave lady because the whole world was watching," he said. "She was willing to take that risk because if something goes wrong, a good story ain't so good anymore."
After the successful procedures for both children, Reagan visited them at Saint Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York, and gave them both Cabbage Patch Kids, that Christmas season's most popular gift.
While Halvorson doesn't remember much about the operation or his trip on Air Force One to the White House - except the plentiful supply of jelly beans, Ronald Reagan's favorite - he does know he wants to participate in the program and help other children the way others helped him.
With Friday's long-awaited meeting with Reagan over, Halvorson said he's ready to move on to other chapters in his life.
Although he loves Korean food, he has forgotten most of the language and has not been back to his native country since he was adopted.
He wants to see his biological family, he said, adding, "That would be a great next chapter."
rick.coca@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3329
bump
Nice story.
New York Times Headline at the time: Reagan’s Snatch Sick Children From Their Families.
It's amazing how many magnificent human interest stories manage to surface regarding the Reagans...our most emphatic "let 'em eat cake" First Family.
snif
I remember this well. I thought it was such a nice thing to do for these kids. Though some ardent Democrat coworkers at the time said how awful they thought it was. Why not help all the sick children in this country, they said! Yeah, so much for good liberal compassion.
From the NYT archives:
FOREIGN CHILDREN GIVEN GIFT OF LIFE
By LINDSEY GRUSON
November 15, 1983After a Ugandan child was mauled by a hyena 10 years ago, civic groups in Uganda issued a plea for help in finding a plastic surgeon to reconstruct the child's face. That call for aid reached Long Island, and while the child was eventually treated elsewhere, the plea helped start what is now an effort in behalf of foreign children with congenital heart defects. That effort was renewed here today with the arrival of two Korean children for complicated heart operations that doctors expect to prol...
MRS. REAGAN PAYS A CALL ON CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL
By JOHN T. MCQUISTON
December 20, 1983They hugged and kissed on the floor at the foot of the Christmas tree as they unwrapped shiny packages tied with silver-and-gold ribbon. Christmas had come a little early for the three celebrators, whose names were Nancy Reagan, 7-year- old Ahn Ji Sook and 4-year-old Lee Kil Woo. It was the first time the First Lady had seen the two children since she and President Reagan brought them back from South Korea a month ago for open-heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn. ''They look wonderf...
I've noticed most of my life that liberals love humanity. It's people they can't stand.
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