Leukemia survivor, blood transplant donor who helped save her life meet for the first time in Miami

By Robbin Simmons, Rubén Rosario

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    MIAMI, Florida (WSVN) — It may have seemed like an ordinary hug, but it was the moment a leukemia survivor met the stranger who saved her life.

7News cameras captured the moments Niurdys Montenegro and Steven Metzler embraced, as they met for the first time in Miami on Sunday.

Montenegro said her journey started with leg pain while at the gym in 2021. She said she was shocked to receive the eventual diagnosis.

“December 21st, it start everything; they diagnosed me with the leukemia, lymphoblastic acute,” she said.

Hundreds of miles away, in North Carolina, Metzler made a choice that would change a stranger’s life.

“As soon as I kind of found out I had the opportunity to help change someone’s life or potentially change someone’s life, I was super excited,” he said.

Metzler said he reached out to DKMS, the German-based international nonprofit bone marrow donor center.

“I contacted DKMS as soon as I could, just to find out what the next steps would be, and I just felt really committed,” he said.

Montenegro endured months of chemotherapy. After remission, doctors told her a blood stem cell transplant was her best chance.

“It’s super hard, it’s super difficult. The match needs to be compatible more than 50%. [Stuart] matched 100%, matched with me,” she said.

Their match beat the odds, and it took some time, but survivor and donor agree it was so well worth the wait.

“I was very excited. At that point, I was seven or eight years removed from actually registering. I had completely forgotten about it, I had moved across the country, so to be – having them reach out to find me was a little surprising but very exciting,” said Metzler.

Montenegro had to wait a year to see whether her donor would be willing to meet. They did just that for the first time on Sunday.

She expressed her gratitude, and he hopes his story inspires others to do the same.

Metzler said he was thinking of his family when he signed up for the chance to save a life.

“I have two daughters, two wonderful daughters, and a wife, and for me it’s just knowing, if something happened to them, I would hope that somebody out there, that one-in-a-million chance, would put their name on the registry,” he said.

“Here I’m alive, and happy,” said Montenegro.

Steven Metzler got the email he was a potential match in November of 2022.

DKMS is the world’s largest blood stem cell donor center.

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