Viral TikTok Plea Seeks Stem Cell Donor for Teen (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: This dad had never posted on TikTok before. Now his video has more than 15 million views because he's racing to save his 15-year-old son's life. Two weeks ago, he thought his son had a 95% chance at getting a donor. Then both matches fell through. I spoke to Juan Uribe about his viral video and his son, Max.

[00:00:21] Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Juan, and I'm posting this because I need your help to save my son. My son has a very rare blood disorder that if it's not treated with a stem cell transplant in the next couple of months, will develop into MDS or AML, which are forms of blood cancer and are very deadly.

[00:00:39] Speaker 1: Uribe is hoping his posts will help find blood stem cell donors for his son.

[00:00:44] Speaker 2: So we learned that things were on a really bad course for Max back in August, September of last year. And at the time, we took a little bit of comfort in knowing that when he needed to go to a stem cell transplant, there were two perfect matches in the database. But those two perfect matches fell through literally two weeks ago, which is what prompted me to go to social media. It was like a kick in the gut, honestly. How is he doing? Fortunately, his day-to-day is generally okay and he is in good spirits. Right now, he's very much just focused on doing well in school and trying to have fun like any ninth grader.

[00:01:22] Speaker 1: Well, I know you're very proud of your son and your son should be very proud of you. Does he call you a big social media star now? How's that going in the house? No.

[00:01:32] Speaker 2: It's funny, I and many friends have said, you're not quite the guy I pictured as a TikTok star, although I've come far from that.

[00:01:43] Speaker 1: For more information on all this or to register as a donor yourself, you can scan the QR code on your screen right now. And wouldn't it be something if one of our CNN viewers was that match and we were able to help save Max's life?