Passengers usually save their applause for the moment the plane lands, but on a United flight on Saturday they were clapping before the plane even left the ground.
That’s because United pilot Captain David Whitson boarded Flight 2223 from Houston to Newark shortly before takeoff to greet a heroic passenger, who happened to be his bone marrow donor.
In a video taken by another passenger, Whitson is seen walking through the cabin to hug passenger Alexandria Reimold, whom he later identifies as his bone marrow donor.
After piloting a separate flight that landed in Houston, he ran to Reimold’s gate to say “hello” before her flight took off and “share their remarkable story with other travelers over the plane’s PA system,” according to a spokesperson for United Airlines. .
As they hugged, Whitson told the surrounding passengers that Reimold was a “real hero.”
He added that Reimold, who was 22 at the time of her donation eight years ago, would have been a better match than his own brother.
“This is the young lady who saved my life,” Whitson said as passengers surrounding the couple cheered over the heartwarming reunion.
Reimold registered as a bone marrow donor at age 18 while she was a student at Purdue University, but did not donate until four years later, a United Airlines spokesperson said. She and Whitson were both registered with NMDP when they matched.
As a result of Reimold’s donation, Whitson’s bone marrow transplant was performed in 2016. He returned to fly for United Airlines as a pilot in 2018, the airline said.
Whitson and Reimold had previously met in 2018 when the pilot’s hospital, Baylor Medical Center Dallas, hosted their in-person meeting, United Airlines said.
Bone marrow is the soft and spongy liquid tissue in the center of some bones that produces more than 200 billion new blood cells every day, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Each year, about 18,000 people learn that they have a bone marrow disease that a bone marrow transplant or other stem cell transplant could cure.
The Cleveland Clinic says that about 30% of all people needing a transplant find a matching donor from someone in their immediate family, but the remaining 70% rely on finding matching donors from someone other than a close family member. Anyone can volunteer to donate bone marrow, but all donors must meet certain health requirements.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
