Dr. Matt Kocher was setting up an operating room during his anesthesia fellowship at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville when nurse Alexis Mamros asked if he had ever received anesthesia. He replied that he had, during his cancer treatment.
Curious, Mamros asked for details. Kocher mentioned he remembered another patient named Victor who also had cancer. Mamros then asked if he knew a nurse named Victor Flinko.
Kocher did know Flinko; they had worked together in the operating room.
Mamros, familiar with Flinko’s story, called him and put him on speakerphone to ask about his bone marrow transplant.
“As I was talking to her, I heard a bunch of screaming,” Flinko recalled. “She told me to meet them. When I arrived, she asked if I knew Matt Kocher. I said, ‘Yes, I’ve worked with Matt in the operating room.’”
The operating room wasn’t the only time Kocher and Flinko had been together in a hospital. They had spent time in the former Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Oakland in 2005.
They were on the same floor, in adjacent rooms during leukemia treatments.
“All I remembered from that time was I had a friend named Matt,” Flinko said. “I called my mom, and she remembered Matt. When I put her on speakerphone, she screamed. She said, ‘How did you not know?’”
His mother recalled the boys spending a day at Dave & Buster’s at the Waterfront in Homestead. Photos from that outing are now displayed in the hospital.
The past began to resurface for both men.
Flinko, from Plum, was diagnosed with leukemia at 4 years old. He underwent radiation and chemotherapy. After a year, his cancer relapsed, and he received a cord blood transplant from an anonymous donor.
Cord blood comes from stem cells collected from umbilical cord blood after a baby’s birth. It can be frozen and stored until needed for a transplant.
Flinko developed graft-versus-host disease, a complication that can occur after a transplant. The donated stem cells eventually become mature blood cells, but sometimes they attack the recipient’s cells. After three months, Flinko was able to leave the hospital.
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When Kocher was 11, he thought he had a viral infection. He was ultimately diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. He underwent rounds of chemotherapy and received a bone marrow transplant from his sister Kristina after a few weeks in the hospital. Kocher, who lives in the Strip District with his wife Sandi, said he would be forever grateful to his sister.
Both men said they would not have made it through their medical challenges without the support of their families and healthcare professionals. They both chose to work in the medical field to pay it forward.
Kocher, who will start his rotation as a clinician in July, said he doesn’t take anything for granted. He talks with parents and children, telling them he understands what they are going through.
Flinko, a registered nurse, praised the medical staff at Children’s Hospital as “amazing role models.” Both men still see some of the nurses, doctors and staff who took care of them.
“I am so thankful,” said Flinko, 25. “Going through what I did would have been so hard to process without support, especially since I was just a kid. This reunion with Matt is pretty cool. The nurses and doctors who took care of me were the people I wanted to become. What I went through has helped me get through difficult situations in my life.”
Flinko recalled his body rejecting the cord blood marrow, which caused burning and blisters, and he had to be isolated.
“I was so sick,” Flinko said.
“I remember those bad days,” Kocher said. “When I see other kids going through a tough time, I tell them I’ve been there and know how they feel. What Victor and I experienced gives us a different outlook on life.”
It’s an experience they never imagined would bring them back to the same hospital.
“I never made the connection,” said Kocher, 31. “I heard Victor’s full name, but it didn’t click until Alexis brought it up and things came back to me. It all checked out. There is a reason for everything.”
“It was the luck of the draw that we ended up in the OR together,” Flinko said. “Without Alexis asking, we might never have figured this out. But I’m glad she did, and we reconnected. Stories like ours represent a full-circle experience.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region’s diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of “A Daughter’s Promise.” She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.