Battle Creek man among longest surviving heart transplant recipients
Jennifer died when she was 2. Her heart is still beating in Brian Stricklin's chest.
Jackie Stricklin never met Jennifer Bailey, but she believes Jennifer probably would have loved horses, gardening, riding motorcycles, dancing and keeping her house clean.
Just like Stricklin's son, Brian, who received Jennifer's heart when he was 13 months old.
She'll never know for sure.
Jennifer Bailey was just a little more than 2 years old when a man who lived with her and her mother beat her to death in an unexplained blackout on Dec. 6, 1987.
Brian, who doctors had given just six weeks to live, received her heart the following day.
"I know she must have loved to vacuum, because he loves to vacuum and clean the house," Jackie Stricklin said. "He loves to ride on the back of a Harley. He loves to dance. He does really love to ride horses. He does yard work.
"Jennifer would have been exactly like that," she said.
Brian, who was born with an underdeveloped heart, is now the longest living heart transplant survivor under the care of Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center at the University of Michigan.
“We have in our records that he received his heart transplant 30.7 years ago,” said Shantell Kirkendoll, a Michigan Medicine spokeswoman.
Beating the odds
Worldwide, only about one heart transplant recipient in five will survive longer than 20 years, according to the registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.
And Brian faced other challenges from the start.
Jackie Stricklin says her son developed a learning disability early in life because doctors placed him in dry ice in preparation for the heart transplant surgery, essentially blocking blood to his brain for about four hours.
His body also rejected its new heart three times shortly after the transplant. He still carries a non-working pacemaker in his chest.
On Saturday, Brian's family and friends gathered at the Battle Creek Eagles No. 299 lodge to celebrate his life and raise the $5,200 needed to send him to Disney World because he is dying to meet Mickey and Minnie.
"Brian is a very thankful young man," said Jim Wolfersberger, an organizer of the Saturday fundraiser. "He's not really realizing it, but he is. He's thanked me many times. He's a good kid, and I'm glad to help him."
A passion for motorcycles, dance
When he's not mowing or planting flowers, Brian likes to go on motorcycle rides and to dance at some of the local bike clubs.
Brian often goes to bike nights at Wild Mike's, We Are Saints Again, and the Eagles lodge.
"He dances with a lot of different girls," said Marty Wolf, Jackie Stricklin's boyfriend. "He gets a lot of women to dance with him."
On Saturday, Brian danced for most of the afternoon and into the evening at the Eagles lodge. He also wore a gold medal to show others that he's indeed the longest heart transplant survivor under the care of Michigan Medicine doctors.
Brian, who someday would like to drive a car and get married, said Saturday that he feels "blessed"
"I got good friends and good family," he said.
His friends brought in a band and found replacement musicians when a second band cancelled two hours before it was supposed to perform. Wolf roasted a 180-pound pig for the event.
Michael Watson, of Ceresco, and Penny Bates, of Battle Creek, agreed to bid on the same item, a painting of Minnie Mouse, during an auction by Rick Spaulding, a local real estate agent and auctioneer.
Watson and Bates bid $230 for the painting and donated it to Brian.
"It made my heart warm to see him happy," Watson said.
Robin Conant and Kitty Sweetbates danced a few songs with the man of the hour.
"He's the bomb," Sweetbates said. "I love him to death."
Conant echoed her friend's sentiments.
"He's one heck of a guy," she said. "He's so free-spirited, full of life and love."
Preserving through lymphoma, a family death
And that despite the fact that life has dealt him some hard blows.
Brian battled through two bouts of cancer. At the age of 5, doctors diagnosed and treated him for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. At 13, doctors removed a fifth of his top lip to save him from squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
His family then moved to Kentucky, and his father was killed in 2002 when a tree fell on him. Jackie Stricklin said she donated her husband's heart, liver, kidneys and other organs to save lives.
Jackie retired from General Motors in 2006, and she and Brian returned to Battle Creek five years ago to live closer to family.
Brian received a certificate from Greenwood High School in Bowling Green, Kentucky, before returning to Michigan.
"I think he's happy and he's in a good spot in his life," Jackie Stricklin said. "I think he just gets disappointed because he's not doing normal things like driving a car. I think, overall, he's pretty happy."
Contact Battle Creek Enquirer reporter Noe Hernandez at 269-966-0684 or nhernandez@battlecreekenquirer.com.
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