Now cancer-free, North Texas teen meets stranger who saved his life with bone marrow donation

There wasn't a dry eye in the room at Children’s Health Wednesday as a North Texas teen met the man who saved his life.

Sebastian Hernandez, 17, is now cancer-free and focused on the future after years of battling a life-threatening form of leukemia all thanks to a bone marrow transplant and a college student 500 miles away.

More than a year after the procedure, Hernandez and 20-year-old Zach Warter met in a reunion arranged by the hospital in honor of National Donor Day.

The two hugged the moment they laid eyes on each other.

"As much as I may have been able to save his life, he saved mine. Being able to give him this second chance has been a gift that I never could've imagined,” said Zach Warter.

A year and a half ago, Warter said he was a freshman at Tulane when he got the call that he'd matched with a teen in Texas whose acute lymphoblastic leukemia had relapsed after multiple rounds of chemotherapy.

"It was obvious after a couple of months that he would ultimately need a transplant,” said Hernadez’s oncologist Dr. Tiffany Simms-Waldrip

Warter first learned about the National Marrow Donor Program, formerly known as Be the Match, during his dad's own battle with cancer.

Though his dad didn't survive, Warter spent his childhood helping his mom encourage people to register. He signed up himself as soon as he was old enough.  

“It was overwhelming. It was just overwhelming. He had just joined the registry six months prior. He’d just turned 18 and to think that he could match with, at the time Sebastian was 15, was just an overwhelming process for all of us. Joy,” said Warter’s mom Barbar Warter.

Wednesday, she was by her son’s side as they received hugs and gratitude from Hernandez’s family, joining them in prayer.

While cancer-free, Simms-Waldrip said Hernandez will remain under supervision to ensure the cancer doesn’t come back.

Still, he’s begun to dream about a future that his family once feared might be out of reach. He hopes his story will inspire others to register.

"Give it a chance so more kids out there can get a second chance in this life,” he said.

"Sebastian and I are brothers for life,” said Warter.

“Yeah, we're brothers forever and ever,” said Hernandez.

To learn more or register for the National Marrow Donor Program, visit bethematch.org.