Organ recipient shares good word about Gift of Life

ANN ARBOR: Organ recipient shares good word about Gift of Life

By Jodie Mason, A2 Journal

Dr. Michael Hagan still remembers the first time he met his donor family. In fact, he says it’s one of the single most important experiences of his entire life. And with Dec. 21, 2010 marking the 11 year anniversary of his transplant, Dr. Hagan is still thankful to be alive.

“In my first life, I was an emergency physician,” said Hagan. “I was very active in the emergency department, I was very involved in it and I became certified in emergency medicine. I was an instructor for EMT’s and paramedics and I was an Advanced Cardiac Life Support instructor and a professor of emergency medicine at Michigan State. I had a wonderful career in emergency medicine.”

Roughly ten years into his career, Dr. Hagan contracted viral Hepatitis B from a patient. He was off work for six months, returned to work part-time and relapsed.

“They measure the severity of the Hepatitis by what are called liver enzymes. Normal is in the range of 40 to 80. When I had my first episode, my enzymes were 300 and 500, and when I had my relapse; my enzymes were within 1000 to 2000.”

Dr. Hagan was sent to The University of Michigan Hospital, where he was told that if he were to have a third relapse, he would most likely die.

“I was told that I would have to retire from emergency medicine,” said Hagan. “And that was the end of my first life. When you go to medical school, you learn medicine, you don’t learn anything else, so it was a devastating blow for me.”

After returning to college, he obtained a master’s degree in health service administration and began working as the vice president of medical quality at St. Joseph Mercy Health System, where he worked for ten years.

“My new career was very nice. But after ten years, we had a tragedy in our family, and my 20-year-old son who died in a tragic accident. It was a very devastating time for me, and within a matter of months I had a third relapse, and this time it was worse than it was before.”

He was informed that he had End Stage Liver Disease, and that he had less than 18 months to live. His only option was to be put on the transplant list and wait.

“Time is very critical with a transplant, and I was told I needed to show up at U-M within one hour of whenever they called me. At this time I lived in Bloomfield, so it was at least an hour and a half from my home. But they told me to go home, pack a suitcase and wait for a phone call.”

During the waiting period for his liver transplant, Dr. Hagan began to show severe signs of liver damage, including yellowing the skin, nausea and water retention. Nearly 24 months after being put on the donor list, the phone rang with news about a transplant.

“I woke up the next day in intensive care and I could feel that I was a different person. I felt warm and I felt that I had vibrancy to me that I didn’t have before.”

Following his transplant surgery, Dr. Hagan was informed that if he had not received his new liver when he did, he would not have lived more than a week.

“When I say that I am thankful to be here, I really mean that. Every day when I wake up I say ‘thank you’ to God and I say ‘thank you’ to my donor family.”

Dr. Hagan became curious about his new liver and the donor. But with confidentiality laws in place to protect donors and recipients, he had nearly resigned to the idea that he would never know.

“The only thing they could tell me was that my donor was 21 and that the liver was healthy,” said Hagan.

Upon returning home from the hospital, Dr. Hagan contacted a newspaper reporter who had written an article previously about his son’s death.

“She knew I was on the transplant list, so I was telling her about my transplant. And I happened to mention it was on Dec. 21 that I received my liver transplant and she starts screaming on the phone and I said ‘what’s the matter.’”

His friend had recently written a series of articles about a young woman named Shemika Rogers in Lansing who was shot and in critical condition on a ventilator for five days while the family was making arrangements for organ donation.

“She thought that might be my donor. At that point, it was ‘maybe yes, maybe no,’ because we do ship organs all across the country, but it was a clue. But there were seven absolute total coincidences that happened following my surgery, and that was the first.”

Six months later, he was reading an article in the Detroit Free Press about white-collar crime, and in the article, it cited a case in Lansing where a woman named Shemika was tracked by a gang using Nextel cell phones.

“At the end of the article, it said that the murder trial began on May 1. So I called up the Ingham County Prosecutor’s office and I found out about the trial.”

On the first day of the trial, Dr. Hagan entered the courtroom and sat in the very back row.

“The prosecutor saw me walk in, and walked all the way down the aisle and said to me ‘why are you here?’ At the time, I made something up on the spot and I told him it was because I was a retired guy who watches trials. But on the second day, he came up to me and said ‘I don’t believe you.’

“So we went into a small room and I told him my story, about how I had contracted Hepatitis from a patient and I said ‘on Dec. 21, I received a liver transplant’ and the prosecutor said ‘stop, I know why you’re here.’”

The trial lasted six weeks, with a month delay for sentencing. Dr. Hagan sat with Shemika’s family every day during the trial, despite the fact that at that time, they were unaware of who he was.

Following the trial, the prosecutor encouraged Dr. Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family, and shared his motivation during the entire trial.

“Every day, when he came to court and shook my hand, he said he realized he was prosecuting a murder trial where part of the murder victim was still alive, in the courtroom, watching him to make sure he did a good job. He said he had never been motivated like that in his 25-year career as a prosecutor.”

From this motivation, the prosecutor encouraged Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family explaining who he was and why he had attended the trial.

On the sentencing day of the trial, the Lansing State Police were on hand to escort the entire family away for safety. The prosecutor approached Dr. Hagan and said that he had given the letter to the family.

“The letter simply read ‘To Shemika’s Family, my name is Dr. Michael Hagan and I think we’re related.’ I went on to tell them my story and said that on Dec. 21 I received a liver transplant and I believe that Shemika was my donor…They read the letter and recognized who I was. And up until this point I had no proof this was my donor family and even if it was, not every family is willing to make that emotional connection.

“So if that family had chosen not to make that connection and to walk out the door, I would have to accept it. But instead, they started screaming, 12 people come running down the hall and they gave me a great big hug, right in front of the judge, and jury and everything.”

In 2009, Michigan organ donation resulted in 864 transplants, and in 2010, there were 694. As of Dec. 1, 2010, 2,449 Michigan patients were awaiting a kidney transplant, and 319 were waiting for a liver. A total of 2,993 people are currently awaiting organ donations.

“If you take my age and Shemika’s age and average them, I’m only 37. And that’s how I feel. It’s not like I was sick and I got better. I am a whole new person. I am in my third life now, which is the best that I could ever imagine. I work here at Gift of Life Michigan, I work in organ donation everyday and it’s absolutely incredible to be able to do this.”

Outside the Gift of Life offices hang quilts, consisting of patches designed by the families of donors. One patch belongs to Shemika.

“Every morning, when I come through that door, I’m inspired by her.”

For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit www.giftoflifemichigan.org and click on the donor tab.



For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.giftoflifemichigan.org/ and click on the donor tab.

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