When organist Mark
Hamrick, Class of 1973, plays “Nearer My God to Thee” at the 125-year-old
Monongah Baptist Church, it is VERY personal.
The FirstEnergy retiree’s wife, Margaret Hamrick, who is from Tennessee, has
been to Hell and back in her battle with cirrhosis.
The California girl from Oceanside, Monongah’s
Barbara Marsh, the widow of Dennis Toler, killed in the Farmington #9 mine explosion a
half-century ago, details the frightening
and heart-warming story in her Monongah News column in the Fairmont Times:
Tragedy To Triumph,
One Woman's Story
By Barbara Marsh
When I started writing some 30 years ago I told John Veasey
that I knew everybody has a story and I wanted to know them all. I have
since been afforded the opportunity to go out and find them for myself.
There are love stories, adventure stories, stories of
mystique, murder stories, funny stories and then there are stories like the one
you're about to read. A story of love and bravery, challenges and many
disappointments along the way. A story of a family that struggled to try and
understand why so many lives had been lost to what they now must face.
This is the story of Margaret and Mark Hamrick of
Monongah. Primarily it is Margaret's story, but of husband Mark's as well as he,
too, seemed to feel his loving wife's every pain.
It all began in March of 2014, the excruciating, horrific
muscle spasms that fought their way through Margaret’s legs. She had never had muscle
spasms in her whole life and could get no relief. Her only alternative was to
head for the emergency room at United Hospital Center. After a plethora of tests
the only thing they seemed to find was low magnesium. She was referred to a
hematologist in Morgantown.
For several months and with repeat blood monitoring to
rule out hemochromatosis, she was referred to a gastroenterologist. After three
visits, an ultrasound and an MRI, Margaret was informed that she had a fatty
liver. At a follwup visit to the hematologist, the resident blurted out that Margaret
had cirrhosis.
Her own mother's life had been shortened by cirrhosis and,
knowing what she had gone through, Margaret was devastated. The gastroenterologist
asked her at her next appointment if she would be willing to have a transplant.
She replied that she really didn't want to put her family through that
hardship. The doctor told her that she was being selfish.
She was referred to University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center but the facility kept putting off her appointment. When Margaret called the
gastroenterologist office, the assistant there was a dispute with her insurance
company. Margaret was referred to the Cleveland Clinic.
Her first appointment at the clinic was on May 4, 2016
with a Doctor Carey. There is a model for end-stage liver disease (MELD)
scoring of 1 to 40. Normal numbers for a person her age should be 13. By her
next appointment in September, Margaret’s number had escalated to 17. Dr. Carey
said that, if she didn't have a transplant, she would have 3 to 12 months to
live. At this time it felt surreal because she didn't feel badly at all.
Margaret needed time to think, so she asked advice from
family, friends and co-workers. They convinced her to have the transplant. Margaret
and her husband spent the week of November 14 at Cleveland Clinic being tested
to see if she would be eligible for the transplant. Some 32 vials of blood were
drawn on one of those days. EKGs, stress test, x-rays, MRI, vaccinations, you
name it, she was even given a shot to kill any parasites she might have picked
up in the Philippines!
The following week was her first hospitalization. She had
to go into the hospital at WVU the week of Thanksgiving with acute kidney
failure and hipatic encephalography. Ammonia wasn't being filtered from her
blood and that can cause problems with your brain. There was confusion,
lethargy and foggy thinking. While she was in the WVU hospital she received a
call from Cleveland Clinic telling her that she had been accepted by Uno's,
Cleveland area, and Cleveland Clinic.
For her husband and her sons to maintain their jobs, it
was necessary that her daughter-in-law quit her government post and stay with Margaret
around-the-clock except to keep her own appointments. Margaret’s husband or sons
were with her during those times.
In November, the hospital began paracentesis to remove
the acites with six being removed every six days. It was a very uncomfortable
experience and she felt as though she looked like she were about to have
triplets. She would go in with tight pants and leave with them nearly falling
off. WVU has a limit what they will remove but she was producing much more than
they were approved to remove. By the time she was ready for her transplant, 130
L had been removed from her abdomen. That's an equivalent to 65 2L bottles of pop.
The next step was approval of her insurance company. She
had many conversations with the wonderful ladies at the company and they approved her transplant.
Early December found her in the hospital again and she
realized that she could no longer perform her job. Between the hepatic encephalography
and muscle spasms, she was forced to take a leave of absence. While still in
the ER, she got her first offer of a liver. Unfortunately she was so out of it
with the HE and was not healthy enough for the trip to Cleveland. There was
about a 75% chance that this liver might not work well, so she turned this
offer down.
Margaret returned to WVU hospital again in early February
2017. While there, she received an offer and was taken to Cleveland by
ambulance. While in the operating room hallway waiting to go into the OR she
was so exhausted that she fell asleep. The surgeon came out and had to awaken
her to tell her that this liver did not work out. There was no explanation due
to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws.
Margaret remained in the hospital for two weeks because doctors
found additional health issues that needed to be addressed so she woud be stronger
for the next offer. High sodium, high potassium, acute kidney failure and low blood
pressure which measured 59/29. She also found out that she had E.Coli in her
acites.
Margaret was out of the hospital for about 10 days when
she received her third offer. Her son had taken the place of her daughter-in-law
for a couple of days and he rushed her to the hospital. The rest of the family hurried
to Cleveland. There was a blizzard blowing into the Cleveland area and the wind
was so bad on March 1, 2017 that semi-trucks were being turned over on the Interstate.
On May 2 at 5 p.m. Margaret was taken down to have her transplant.
She was both excited and nervous. The family all said their "I love you’ s"and
off she went. Under the bright lights of the OR, she talked to the anesthesiologist
who told her he just got a great day's sleep so he was working fresh. Dr.
Hashimoto, one of the four surgeons, talked to her, and they did their high
fives, as she told him that he had beautiful hands.
Upon awakening Margaret’s next realization was that she
had tubes sticking out from everywhere. There were two tubes down her throat,
tubes out her neck, both arms and an IV. She was in ICU for 36 hours and before
being moved to a room. She could have been out of the hospital within 6 days if
it hadn't been for a reaction to the PIC line that was taken out of her neck.
Her daughter-in-law and Margaret had to stay in Cleveland, close to the
hospital, until April 1. The motel room started to seem like it was closing in
on them.
Before Margaret returned home, because of the fear of
dust, her family had to tear out all the carpets in her home and put down
linoleum. Her son added a shower to the half-bath downstairs since she couldn’t
handle steps for a few months.
Over the next several months Margaret had to subsist on
cocktails of anti-rejection medications they have recently tapered off to four.
Over the past year-and-a-half, blood labs have decreased from twice a week to
once a month. She lost 120 pounds during the first six or eight months due to
fluid and medication causing the loss of appetite. She still has to limit high
potassium foods, wear a mask in public during cold and flu season and go
through a lot of hand sanitizers. If she hears a cough or sneeze, she quickly will
look around to see where the culprit might be. She doesn't hug or get close to
children because of the fear of germs. She doesn't touch door knobs ( makes her
husband look like a gentleman), shopping cart handles or steering wheels after
someone else has touched them. She washes all vegetables because others in the
store may have handled them. She cannot go to a buffet because of the germs on
the handles or in the food.
Despite some drawbacks in her daily living she realizes
just how fortunate she truly is. Margaret shared with me that a liver
transplant is not a cure; it is a reprieve. Now she has time to enjoy her
family and friends and truly appreciate every day of her life, especially since
losing not only her mother, but her first cousin, and her mother's first cousin
to cirrhosis.
Holding her head high and with a smile on her face she said
that the hepatic encephalopathy and medication led to a diagnosis of short-term
memory loss, but physically, she adds, "I feel great!"
This family's tragic news turned to triumph after an
arduous journey, but since both her sons have fatty livers Margaret fears that eventually
both may require transplants.
As we came to the end of our interview, she told me that
there were many prayers going up for her from many states, that God was good,
prayer was vital and that she could not have made this journey had it not been
for a loving family.
Mark has been a life-long member of
the Monongah Baptist Church, where the Rev. David Huckins has been its pastor
since 1994. Was in the same 1973 Monongah High graduation class with Debra
Manzo Vandetta, Class of 1973, wife of Monongah Mayor Greg Vandetta.
Another Hamrick in Monongah, who may not be related to
Mark, are Kathy Williamson Hamrick, Class of 1978, who lives in Shinnston with
husband Robert Hamrick and is a sister of the late Al Williamson, Class of
1973, who worked for Shenasky Grocery long ago and who helped Amelia Shenasky
Zentz keep up her Shenasky Lane house and yard for years.
Al and Kathy’s mother was the late Ruth Elizabeth Hall
Williamson, once head cook for Monongah Elementary School and a worker at St.
Barbara’s Nursing Home in Monongah.
There’s also the late Phyllis Hamrick Edgell, who
lived in Monongah with husband Joseph Edgell, Jr., also deceased.
