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Here is an article about the same thing, but with a bit more details. Note the mention of 50% fatality rate among older patients.

From UK Telegraph:
Doctor finds 'blood serum cure for Sars'
By Adam Luck in Hong Kong
(Filed: 11/05/2003)

A doctor in Hong Kong who survived Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome is pioneering a treatment based on his own blood to help patients who do not respond to conventional anti-viral drugs.

Prof Gregory Cheng claims a success rate of more than 60 per cent for the experimental treatment for Sars, which has killed 526 people throughout the world. It involves giving patients a transfusion of serum produced from blood donated by recovering Sars sufferers, who appear to have built up antibodies after being exposed to the virus.

So far 70 patients have been treated with the convalescent serum and most showed rapid improvement within days. With the mortality rate rising to an estimated 50 per cent among older patients - who are less likely to respond to conventional treatment - Prof Cheng is optimistic that his therapy could become an alternative treatment.

"This was an unproven and unknown treatment," said Prof Cheng, of the Department of Medicine at Hong Kong's Chinese University, "but at the time we had patients deteriorating in front of our eyes and this was a logical alternative.

"I felt that it was justifiable and we explained the risks involved to the patients and their relatives. We are very pleased with how it has gone. Obviously, this is in its early stages but the results have been very encouraging.

"Not only has this helped patients who have been beyond the help of the conventional treatment but many new Sars patients are now asking to be treated by this method."

The transfusions are performed during the second week of infection when the Sars virus is at its peak and victims are most vulnerable. In some cases, patients have received several transfusions.

Although not all those treated with the serum have recovered none has died so far. "They just take longer to recover or are still in hospital," said Prof Cheng.

Until now, doctors in Hong Kong - which is leading the Sars treatment - have relied on a cocktail of Ribavirin - which represses viruses - and steroids to help patients.

Potential side effects include damage to the heart, liver and blood and also deformities in unborn children.

So far the treatment using serum - which is blood stripped of its red and white blood cells - has produced no obvious side effects.

Prof Cheng, who is based at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Kowloon, said that tackling Sars with convalescent serum was a logical extension of existing techniques. Serum that is rich in antibodies is already used to treat viral infections such as hepatitis B and HIV.

But whereas most serum is produced to internationally accepted standards and carefully filtered for other dangerous viruses, the Hong Kong team could not guarantee a uniform amount of antibodies in each transfusion.

However, Prof Cheng decided that the risk was "justifiable". He said: "We tried the treatment on a couple of our colleagues and some did have a quite quick recovery rate. Although this was not a controlled trial we felt encouraged and began to use it more.

"We need to complete experiments to document the viral infection and compare this between a treatment group and those who have not been given the serum treatment."

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/11/wsars11.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/05/11/ixworld.html/news/2003/05/11/wsars11.xml