Published: October 19, 2009 10:43 am      

Michael's gift: Gainesville woman shares son's story, promotes organ donation

Judy Hurst has told her story many times.

Her son’s name is Mike and his death was heartbreaking.

But with his passing, he gave gifts so that others could live.

Michael Hurst was 33 when he died on New Year’s Day 1994.

And although it has been 15 years since the terrible events on Fair Avenue, Judy remembers them too well.

While driving home from lunch with a friend she passed the home where Mike and his father were watching college bowl games . The two women saw an ambulance parked outside her ex-husband’s house.

At first she thought her former husband was ill.

Then she saw her son’s truck in the driveway.

“I knew when I saw that truck that it was Mike and that he was gone,” she said.

The circumstances surrounding Mike’s death are not clear. According to an autopsy report, he died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Ruled a suicide by local law enforcement, Hurst isn’t so sure.

Mike had a lot to live for, his mother said tearfully.

He was a construction contractor who had recently secured a job building a new housing addition in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He had young children and a wife he loved dearly.

And he was close to his mother — so close that he once told her about a local man who committed suicide and voiced his sadness over the tragedy.

“He said the man (who committed suicide) left young kids. He thought it was just horrible. I just don’t think it (Mikes’ death) was suicide,” she said.

The details of Mike Hurst’s death may never be known, but Hurst said her message about Mike’s life is what matters now.

She said she wants others to know that Mike saved lives through organ donation.

Mike’s wife Tracey was the one who consented to donating Michael’s heart and his kidneys.

Tracey and Judy Hurst talked it over at Harris Methodist hospital where Mike was on life support. Physicians had already explained that he would not recover from his injuries.

“At first Tracey said Mike wouldn’t want it (to donate his organs). She said he always said the doctors wouldn’t try hard to save him if he was an organ donor,” she said. “But I talked to her and I told her Mike was such a giving person. He loved people and wanted to help them. If he thought he could help somebody this way, he would.”

Tracey listened to her mother-in-law’s passionate plea and agreed to the donation.

Representatives for LifeGift — the not-for-profit organ procurement organization which arranged the transpant — later told Hurst her son’s heart went to a businessman in Mexico.

Two men in their 40s received his kidneys.

Hurst was allowed to write letters to the recipients but LifeGift representatives could not reveal their names or addresses.

She said some time passed before she actually wrote the letters.

“I had to write them later — when I was able to write,” she said.

Only one of the recipients answered her letter.

“It was nearly a year later when one of the men who got Mike’s kidneys wrote me back. He said every time he sat down to re-read my letter, he would start crying. He said, ‘You had to lose your son so my kids could get their father back,’” she said.

The recipient wrote the note on company letterhead and circled his phone number.

“He said ‘You can call any time,’” Hurst recalled.

The phone call wasn’t easy.

“I was in tears before he even answered the phone,” she said. “But it was wonderful. He ‘d been so sick. He was on a transplant list for three or four years.”

She wonders about the other men who received Mike’s organs.

“I’d like to know if they’re still alive,” she said.

She does not dwell on her loss.

Hurst enjoys life and has a host of friends, hobbies and a job that allows her to meet a lot of people. She’s also close to her grandchildren — Mike’s two daughters and two sons.

All four of the children are in their 20s now and doing well, she noted.

“Tracey did a good job,” she said of her daughter-in-law.

In the years after Mike’s death, Hurst made a necessary peace with his passing.

But the tragedy remains a scar on her heart, and tears come quickly when she talks about him.

“You never get over the death of a child,” she said, cradling his picture in her hands.

To learn more about organ donation or to register to become a donor visit www.donatelifetexas.org.