A second obituary, 22 years later


It's a rare bird who is honored to get more than one obituary. But that's what happened to my friend Michael Fencl.

A month before high school graduation his Vespa scooter with bad brakes was hit by a car. He was on life support and his family decided to donate his organs. The mere thought that someone else might live a little longer because of our tragedy served as an emotional rock to cling to.

And through a number of flukes, a few years later we found out where Mike went.

A 2006 story in the Seattle Times explains how back in 1986, 38-year-old Doug Hoxworth became the 34th person ever to get a heart and lung transplant at Stanford.

That 2006 story ends this way:

Hoxworth was not told by doctors who his donor had been. But one of Fencl's friends knew he had been an organ donor, and she attended the same California high school as Hoxworth's daughter Lisa.

The friend told Lisa she knew the identity of her dad's donor. The Hoxworths arranged through a television crew doing a documentary on transplants to meet Fencl's mother. The family still remains close to his mother.

"I think about him all the time," Hoxworth says.

"I talk to him. I say, 'Thank you, Michael.' "

Last night I got e-mail from my friend Chrissy, who dated Mike during high school. (That's them in a picture I took probably in 1985.) Her e-mail said Stephen "Doug" Hoxworth died November 13 at the age of 61.

From the paid obit:

He passed away this month after living 22 full years with organs that were generously donated from Michael Fencl by his mother, Marion.

As further postscript, (Mike seems to get a lot of postscripts, doesn't he?) senior year Mike and I were in civics class together and the whole class took a questionnaire that was supposed to determine whether we were conservative, moderate or liberal. Mike and I were the only ones who got all the answers right. (Oh did I say that? I meant we were the only two liberals in the class.)

So I found it very funny a couple years ago when I learned the name of the Stanford surgeon who transplanted Mike's organs into Mr. Hoxworth: Dr. Bill Frist, who later went on to become the not-at-all liberal Senate majority leader.

Oh and where did Mr. Foxworth die? At his home in Alaska. Wasilla, Alaska.

Labels: bakersfield, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 11/29/2008 10:53:00 AM