ER's Dr. Weaver: Adoptive mom on a mission

I think my wife and I have seen every episode of "ER" for the past ten years. One of the main characters, Dr. Kerry Weaver, portrayed by Laura Innes, has been part of the cast since the second season. She epitomizes the modern type-A manager: driven, prickly, complicated.

Fortunately, Innes seems a bit more down to earth than her character, as evidenced by this article which discusses her real-life role as a mom to a Chinese daughter and her involvement in recruiting potential bone marrow donors for a national registry. Finding a bone marrow match can be particularly hard for adoptees who have no way of contacting their biological family, where a match would be most likely.

"Mia is perfectly healthy, thank heavens," Innes says. But she has stayed in touch with other families with Chinese daughters and, several years ago, learned about a child named Kailee Wells, who had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia and desperately needed a bone marrow transplant."

Tissue type is inherited, so a donor is most likely to be found among people of the same race and ethnicity," Innes says.

For more information, visit the program's Web site, www.marrow.org, and click on the "Thanks Mom!" section or call 314-773-4734.