By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp.

– How Mike Nelson truly feels about 2016 can’t be printed, but he summarizes the year by saying it sucked.

He can laugh about it now and was all smiles Tuesday at the Brandon Fire Station #1 as he and wife Stacy presented the firefighters with gifts of gratitude for saving Mike’s life earlier this year.

“We don’t even know how to thank them, we can’t thank them enough,” said Stacy. “We feel like we were placed in so many good hands this year.”

Stacy and Mike are thankful not only for his life being spared when he suffered a heart attack, but her life being spared as well after battling cancer much of 2016.

Their roller coaster year actually started the last day of 2015. Stacy kept a New Year’s Eve appointment for her annual check-up with her gynecologist and during the exam, the doctor found a lump in Stacy’s left breast.

“I knew it was there, and thought it was just how your breasts change with cycles,” said Stacy, 48. “I think in the back of my mind I was worried, and that was why I kept the appointment.”

She was immediately referred to a breast specialist and in mid-January, a biopsy revealed not one, but two tumors. Stacy underwent a complete mastectomy on Feb. 18 and began chemotherapy in April.

On April 30, the Nelsons, who are the parents of two sons, Brian and Andrew, celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary, with takeout food since Stacy was feeling the ill effects of a chemo treatment two days earlier.

The next morning, Mike wasn’t feeling well and she wondered if it was something he had eaten. Mike knew better, but wanting not to worry his wife, didn’t immediately say that he was suffering the classic symptoms of a heart attack— pain radiating down his left arm and crushing pressure in his chest. She woke their son Brian, an EMT, and called 9-1-1.

Their neighbor, Brandon firefighter/EMT Ryan Setzer, was off-duty, but heard the call and was first to arrive.

“I had no doubt I was having a heart attack,” recounted Mike. “Ryan walks in and said, ‘What do you having going on?’ and I said, ‘A heart attack.’”

Setzer was soon joined by Fire Medic David Castle, Firefighter/EMT Tim McArthur, Fire Medic Mike Ohlert, Capt. Billy Starr and Capt. Jerry Wivo.
“He is very fortunate because statistically he should not have made it,” said Castle. “The actual rhythm he was in typically has a high mortality rate.”

Mike Nelson had a segment elevation myocardial infarction, a blockage of the main coronary artery, which is often called a “widow maker” due to its tendency to be fatal to male victims, leaving wives without husbands. Castle and his colleagues gave Mike medicine to open the artery, as well as medications to stop the clotting, to stop the nausea and to calm him.

“He was very anxious when we got to him, and it’s easy to tell him to calm down, but his body is telling him something is wrong,” said Castle. “We gave him oxygen and a very fast ride to the hospital, because that is ultimately what will save your life.”

En route, the medics were texting readings from the EKG and 12-lead cardiac monitor to St. Joe’s Hospital in Pontiac to allow doctors to be prepared for what was coming and when Mike arrived, he went straight down the hall into the catheterization lab.

“The goal is 90 minutes from the time you hit the door at the hospital to the balloon (used in angioplasty),” said Mike. “Mine was 55 minutes. They took out the blockage and put the stent in. I was like, ‘Just fix me.’”

They did, and Mike can’t thank everyone involved enough, saying people should know how good the firefighters, medics, doctors and nurses are.

On Tuesday, he and Stacy presented the firefighters who cared for him with 2016 White House Historical Association ornaments. The Nelsons purchase an ornament from the WHHA every year, a tradition begun by Stacy’s mother, and all the ornaments on their tree are from the WHHA. This year’s ornament, ironically, is a fire truck that commemorates the engines that responded to the Christmas Eve West Wing Fire of 1929 (for more information, visit

www.whitehousehistory.org).

Castle and his colleagues were delighted with the gift, and were even happier to have their former patient visit.

“Unfortunately, we are often giving sincere apologies (to surviving family members),” said Castle. “When you see this, and we treat it, we did everything right and him coming back to station and giving handshakes and Christmas ornaments, we know we did good teamwork. It is nice to see them coming back. The best reward is the patient tangibly coming in— it is huge. That is why we do this.”

It was an extraordinarily appropriate gift for men who are extraordinarily appreciated by a couple who have had an extraordinary year.

“It was a wild year, but when you’re living it, you just deal with it,” said Mike, who quit smoking and has changed his diet and taken medications to lower cholesterol levels that at one point topped 400. “I took guard for the first half of the year, and she guarded me the second half… We will have a better 2017. We joined a gym and staying healthy is our Christmas gift to each other.”

“Everytime we said it could be worse, something else would happen,” said Stacy, who completed her chemotherapy and has been declared in remission. “We’re gonna change it to, ‘We’re blessed.’ We realize it’s life… My take-away from this year is just to enjoy every day and not wait to be happy. We are going to be happy with what we have and live in the moment.”