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MTU lecturer helping others after her death

By GARRETT NEESE

gneese@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON – Elaine Loughead knows her daughter’s death didn’t need to happen.

But she takes some solace in the fact that by donating her body to science, Michele Loughead can make sure other people with the same disease can have a better outcome.

“That’s the kind of person she was,” Elaine said. “She always wanted to do good for others in life, even in her death, and she has accomplished both.”

Loughead, who was a lecturer of entrepreneurship at Michigan Technological University, died in May. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis seven years ago, her condition worsened with the viral brain infection progressive multifocal leukeoencephalopathy (PML) and immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS).

PML, found in the white matter of the brain, targets cells that create the material insulating nerve sells. Symptoms include vision loss, aphasia and seizures.

In accordance with Michele’s wishes, her brain was donated to the federal National Institutes of Health. In a letter to her parents, the NIH’s translational neurobiology chief Daniel Reich said Michele’s brain had allowed the team to connect clinical observations it had made about PML patients to a process in their brains.

“By combining studies at the microscope with the clinical MRI scans that document your daughter’s illness, we have finally been able to understand the development of a characteristic feature of PML that should allow earlier, more specific diagnosis,” he wrote. “And through earlier diagnosis, hopefully also a way to reverse the disease while there is still time.”

Michele developed PML after taking the drug Tysabri, which is prescribed to patients with multiple sclerosis or Crohn’s disease. She was diagnosed in 2015, after her first brain surgery.

Elaine still gets agitated when she recalls the numerous indignities Michele went through. There was the doctor who put her back on the drug after she began showing symptoms of PML. Then the breathing tube stuck in her throat for nine days after waking up from a coma, which shredded her throat. Then there were inattentive orderlies and a rehab center where orderlies were away during a seizure of Michele’s that, if not for a timely visit from her parents, would have been fatal.

“It’s a gruesome disease, and that’s what haunts me,” Elaine said. “How much she suffered, and the agony she went through.”

By the end, Elaine said, Michele was unable to move her tongue, or take more medications. The last words she was able to get out were “no breathe,” as in “no breathing tube.”

“I know that she was afraid we weren’t be able to let her go. but I told her ‘Michele, if you’re ready, just let go. I love you, but I don’t want to see you in agony. it’s OK to let go.'” Elaine said.

Tysabri now comes with a black box warning indicating that it increases the risk of PML, and telling health care professionals to monitor patients on the drug for symptoms. At any sign of them, the drug should be withheld immediately, according to the FDA warning.

“I think it’s great,” her father, Michael Loughead, said of the warning. “That’s exactly what she was telling us at home, as she was dying in our arms. She hoped her legacy would continue on, and that an awareness would come in. That was the whole idea behind the donation of her brain to research, that as a result of that, things would happen.”

Elaine remembers her daughter’s smile, her intelligence, and her integrity. An old boss of hers still keeps an audit Michele did, Elaine said. At another job, she got fired after she refused to authorize $30,000 from company funds to pay a CEO’s gambling debt. After working at Enron, she started telling senators about improprieties at the company.

“She got a death threat, and that didn’t stop her,” Elaine said. “That’s the kind of person Michele is. I speak about her in the present tense because I know she still lives – just not in a place I can see or touch her.”

To honor her daughter, Elaine is also giving back. On Tuesday, she had 10 inches of hair cut off for the Locks of Love program, which makes wigs for patients who suffer hair loss due to cancer and other ailments. Michele had been self-conscious about having her head shaved for her brain surgeries, Elaine said.

The counters and shelves of Salon by Michelle in Houghton were dotted with photos of Michele: by herself, with her family, or onstage receiving her diploma.

“I’m doing what Michelle’s doing,” Elaine said. “Michelle donated her remains to NIH, and I’m donating my hair to help others, and I’m doing it to help Michele, and I am proud of that.”

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