SEATTLE — He was a superhero, but he still only had one percent chance to live.
All Zach Guillot's doctors and nurses -- and there were a lot of them -- had seen him in his costumes: Batman, Superman, Flash Gordon.
He had the energy and the spirit of all those characters. But underneath the masks and hoods, there were clumps of hair missing. There were burns inflicted from the outside in. There were sores and bruises.Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most aggressive, deadly form there is. And the ugly marks it left on Zach were proof.
But he was still a superhero.
"He was just a go for it type of guy," says his mother, Julie Guillot. "We were just go for it type of parents. And Zach wanted to live."
By the time Zach was nine, he had battled twice. Two rounds of high dose chemo. Two bone marrow transplants. Two remissions. But leukemia came back for round three. That's when doctors said Zach was down to his last one percent chance to live.
"Leukemia, if you're listening, you're going down," Zach belted into his mom's cell phone camera from his Seattle Children's Hospital bed.
The community was listening. They were inspired. Family friend Robin Freedman wanted to do *something* to show solidarity.
She organized a bone marrow registration drive to help other people like Zach. More than 100 showed at Magnusson Park. Their mouths got swabbed, and samples went to a national registry.
Kevin Connolly, whose son went to school with Zach's little brother, showed up. "It seemed like the least I could do."
It was so little compared to Zach's third round of chemo and third bone marrow transplant.
Zach was making good on his promise to pummel leukemia. He started producing healthy blood.
Cancer didn't kill him. But chemo did. February 7, 2014 his liver gave up.
"I remember the night we walked out of the hospital after he passed away, and I was like, what do we do?" Julie says.
They'd been fighting for four years. She didn't want to stop. "I've got a score to settle with AML. We've got to keep fighting." And they're not alone.
Two years after Zach died, Kevin Connolly got a phone call from Delete Blood Cancer. He was a match for another leukemia patient.
In March, Kevin became a donor. Last week he got word his stem cells were reproducing in the man's body.
"It was because of Zach that this man is now alive and ready to go home. There's a direct link, and I hope there will be more links on this chain that started with Zach," Connolly says.
Because real superheroes never die.
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A common misconception is that bone marrow donation is a painful procedure. To learn about/enter the National Bone Marrow Registry (for free) online, or to host a registration drive:https://www.deletebloodcancer.org
Zach's third bone marrow transplant used stem cells from donated umbilical cords. To learn more about donating your baby's cord blood to a public bank: https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-cord-blood/
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After the Aurora Bridge crash, people in our area jumped into action, donating hotel rooms, blood, prayers, challenging Seattleites' reputation for being chilly (the "Seattle Freeze"). It inspired me to pass along stories of when we see people in the community coming together, or what I call #SeattleAntifreeze. If you know a story that should be told, let me know. mminglaven@kiro7.com
To read more stories, click on #SeattleAntifreeze.