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Pilot with leukemia receives transplant
If you had to trust your life to someone, many would turn to their friends or family. But what happens when you have to put your life in the hands of a complete stranger? The story of a man blindsided by cancer and equally surprised by the man that saved his life.
COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - Jack Miller, a commercial pilot, vividly recalls January 2020 as if it were yesterday, especially the day he fell gravely ill.
"I had a fever of 105 degrees," Miller said. "Against my wife's better judgment, I stayed home that night."
By the next day, Miller was in Piedmont Newnan Hospital, struggling to breathe and placed on a ventilator.
"I was diagnosed with a respiratory infection, double pneumonia, and I was septic," he said.
Shortly afterward, Miller was placed in a medically induced coma for weeks. During that time, his family received shocking news: Miller had leukemia, a diagnosis that came as a surprise to his family, which had no history of cancer.
In need of a bone marrow transplant, Miller was transferred to Northside Hospital, home to one of the largest bone and marrow transplant centers in the southeastern United States.
"God works in his own way to connect people who need to be connected," said Tristin Briggs, a 25-year-old airman who would become Miller's life-saving donor.
Briggs, who had signed up for the National Marrow Donor Program on a whim, said he barely remembered registering when he received the call that he was a 10/10 match for Miller.
"Honestly, I don't even remember signing up when I got the call," Briggs recalled. "That's the funny bit. It was spur of the moment."
For Briggs, being a match was another call to duty, much like his role in the military.
"If you get a match, someone needs you for their life, just like the military — someone needs you for life," Briggs said.
Following a successful transplant, the two men and their families have met twice and stayed in regular contact. Miller vividly remembers their first conversation.
"We chatted a little bit, and he told me he was a captain in the KC-135," Miller said, referring to the military aircraft. It was during that conversation they realized they shared something in common — both men were pilots.
"After all, the pilots are a 10/10 match," Miller added with a smile.
Miller is grateful for the young airman’s selflessness and reflects on the chance connection that saved his life.
"Thank goodness Tristan did what he said he was going to do," Miller said.