Barbara, Bruce,
Jeffrey and
"Emerson"
Hillman.

Sometimes, miracles
and hardships coincide.

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

n less than a month, doctors at
University Hospital in Ann Ar-
bor will take Bruce Hillman to
the edge.
He and his wife Barbara are
not making any hard-and-fast
plans for the weekend prior.
They'll probably spend the time
quietly at home in Huntington
Woods. On July 23, their two
sons, Jeffrey and Jason, will join them
for lox and bagels, a Sunday morning rit-
ual.
"It's hard for me to put my life at risk
like this when I feel good," says Mr, Hill-
man. "It's just something I have to do.
It's my only chance at being a grandfa-
ther."
Six years ago, physicians diagnosed
Mr. Hillman with agnogenic-myeloid-
metaplasia. Cancer. He was in remission
at the time, but last April, Mr. Hillman's
condition worsened and he entered the
hospital with spleen problems, sympto-
matic of his disease.
Doctors recommended a bone marrow
transplant, which after wiping out the
immune system, grows new blood-pro-
ducing marrow from the transplant. The
costly procedure has a 30 percent mor-
tality rate. For patients in otherwise good
health, like Mr. Hillman, the chance of
surviving seven days of chemotherapy
and radiation, followed by the four-hour
operation and extended period of isola-
tion, is somewhat higher.
But without the transplant, doctors
say, Mr. Hillman will be dead in five

years.
The family needed a bone marrow
donor. Urgently. The national registry,
which exists for transplant candidates,
costs $20,000 just to search for a match.
Even if one were found, Mr. Hillman,
who is 50, might lose out to a younger pa-
tient.
Family members sent out an emer-
gency alert to Michael Hillman, the
brother they hadn't seen in eight years.
Bruce and Michael Hillman prefer not
to discuss reasons for their estrangement.
They drifted.
Enough said.
What matters more to them is the
way blood, literally, has renewed their
bond of brotherhood. Hearing of his el-
der sibling's need, Michael, 44, went in
for tests.
"He's not only a match. He's what's
known as a perfect match," Bruce Hill-
man says. "The only better match would
have come from an identical twin."
Hospitalized and dazed by morphine
during tests last April, Bruce saw his
younger brother again for the first time.
The reunion led to frequent get-togeth-
ers after the elder Mr. Hillman returned
home.
"In a funny way, this is a miracle," says
Michael Hillman from his home in Bev-
erly Hills, Mich. "If my brother had got-
ten into any other type of trouble — say,
if he needed a kidney or a liver — he
would have gone somewhere else and
might not have contacted me."
The family could have remained at

odds.
"Little things like this don't seem so
coincidental. Some people might scoff,
but I think that people need to believe in
miracles again these days," Michael says.
"Miracles happen like this because peo-
ple believe in them."
And miracles, sometimes, coincide
with hardship.
In late July, doctors will remove large
amounts of bone marrow from Michael's
hip. Bruce, after receiving the transplant,
will be at high risk for infection. He'll be
isolated for five to six weeks in Univer-
sity Hospital's bone marrow transplant
unit. No flowers. No food. No cards. The
family sends heartfelt thanks to friends
and neighbors for their support in recent
months, but after the transplant Mr. Hill-
man cannot receive gifts of any kind
which might affect his fragile immune
system.
Instead, the Hillmans hope well-wish-
ers will participate in a blood drive they
are coordinating with the American Red
Cross. The event will be held 2 to 7:45
p.m. on Monday, July 10, at the Hunt-
ington Woods Recreation Center. It is
open to the public and, while Mr. Hill-
man needs 50 liters of blood for his trans-
donations will go into the general cn
bank, which always hits a low during
N-
summer months.
Bruce and Barbara have cancelled a
trip to Florence, Italy, for their 25th wed-
ding anniversary. On Aug. 27, they hope
to celebrate together in the hospital. Mrs. 15

UNITY IN TIME page 17

