Several months ago, Julie Rosenblatt lay gravely ill at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. She said she believes her survival was due to prayers, support — and blood donations — from the Jewish community.

The Oakhurst mother of two, who just turned 43, is now in remission from leukemia and said the massive outpouring from those willing to make blood donations or offer support "absolutely" helped save her life.

"I guess I was as close to death as could be," acknowledged Rosenblatt, a nurse in a pediatrician's office who has yet to return to work. "Everyone in the hospital who knows me calls me the miracle patient."

She said she will always be grateful for what strangers and friends did for her, but has been especially touched by how the Jewish community rallied around her, she told NJJN in a telephone interview.

Her neighbors helped her and husband, Larry, with meals and shepherding sons Alex, 16, and Daniel, 12, to sporting events and other activities.

The drive for blood donations and support was orchestrated by Rosenblatt's cousins, Randy Schafer of East Brunswick and Dr. Michael Nissenblatt of North Brunswick.

"For a good two or three weeks, she was hovering on the brink of life or death every moment — and that is not an exaggeration," said Nissenblatt, associate director of medical oncology at the hospital and a clinical professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Schafer said he visited Rosenblatt frequently during her hospitalization. When she needed blood donations, he began to consider ways he could help. As a member of the executive board of Temple B'nai Shalom in East Brunswick — where Nissenblatt is also a member — he knew the synagogue had an e-mail distribution list.

A message about Rosenblatt went to several hundred people on the list. According to Schafer, some of the recipients passed it along to the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, which in turn passed it on to other temples. "It became like a chain letter," he said. "The blood bank at the hospital actually had to turn people away, they got so many offers. As it says in the Talmud, ‘To save a life is to save the world.'"

Synagogues in Middlesex County posted the call for help in bulletins and on their Web sites.

"We didn't know who she is," said Rabbi Eliyahu Kaufman of Congregation Ohav Emeth in Highland Park. "Federation asked us to include it in the announcements, so we did. All we knew is that she was a fellow Jew who needed our help."

Members of Temple Beth El in Oakhurst, Rosenblatt's own congregation, also stepped up, according to Rabbi Gordon Yaffe.

"Julie is our miracle," said Yaffe. "She had unbelievable resolve and a positive attitude. We all knew she was fighting and she had the support of her family and community. I visited her at various stages of her journey. I remember one day she was holding court, offering goodies and listening to music, and then she was in the ICU in an induced coma." Yaffe said Beth El also informed members of Rosenblatt's plight and received a strong response.

Rosenblatt said she had gone to the doctor in January because she was short of breath and tired, was bruising easily, and "wasn't feeling right."

Leukemia was suspected and she spent a day in Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch before being transferred Jan. 21 to Robert Wood Johnson — where she would spend the next 77 days. She was treated at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey there under the primary care of Dr. Roger Strair, a leukemia specialist.

Nissenblatt described his role as one of providing "hope, information, and support." Chemotherapy and blood donations by friends, family, and synagogue members, he said, initially failed to effect improvement.

On one visit with his wife, Nissenblatt noticed his cousin's blood count "was virtually zero" and she was breathing about 65 times a minute, compared to the normal 12. She had become "grossly septic" and the focus shifted to keeping Rosenblatt alive long enough for her own bone marrow to clear itself of the leukemia cells. A new round of chemotherapy was begun as well as something that hadn't been used at the hospital for 30 years — donated white blood cells.

"Within two days of starting these new measures, she started to show response, and her bone marrow miraculously began to recover," recalled Nissenblatt, adding that Rosenblatt was off the ventilator in another two weeks.

Two weeks after that, she left the hospital, unable to sit, stand, or walk on her own — but cancer-free. Seventeen days later, she was able to walk into her follow-up appointment.

Nissenblatt said his cousin must still undergo a bone marrow transplant, although she is in remission. Her sister, Lynda Allen of Wayside, has been cleared as her donor.

"Her leukemia is an extremely resistant form of leukemia," he said. "It resisted the best chemotherapy we had to give. If even one leukemia cell hidden somewhere in her body — in a blood vessel in her eye, in her ovary or liver — remains, the leukemia will undoubtedly reoccur, and because it is so resistant, it will cause her death."

Rosenblatt, however, is looking to the future with renewed hope.

"I'm still fighting for my life," she acknowledged. "But, I'm touched and thrilled at the way people came to answer my needs."