By Miles Patrick Yohnke
© 2021 All Rights Reserved.
Side by side, hand in hand, heart to heart, the couple heard the news.
And it was bad.
Once again fear arose for this family. Hurricane Harvey was approaching. Dark billowing clouds of rain were dancing ominously about. Winds of wrath gathered and in the early hours of Saturday, August 26, 2017 it made landfall. Hurricane Harvey stormed through their beloved home in Houston, Texas.
Michael and Sharon Segal sadly would lose their family home of twenty-five years and much of their personal belongings and family keepsakes.
How does a couple survive such tough times?
Forty years ago, on February 17, 1981, a cooler than normal Austin, Texas evening presented itself. Michael Jordan Segal and his then girlfriend, Sharon Weingarten were driving back to her dorm after spending an evening at the library.
The two students at the University of Texas at Austin hadn't driven far when Michael realized he had to stop for gas.
It was then, as he stepped into the convenience store to pay his $2 for the gas that their lives would change forever.
Michael, just 19 at the time, had interrupted an armed robbery in progress. He doesn't remember what happened after that, but his family and court records have filled in the bone-chilling details. Three robbers forced him into the cooler at the back of the store. Then one of them put a gun to the back of Michael's skull execution-style and pulled the trigger.
Michael's girlfriend, Sharon, was still in the car but was growing more worried by the minute as he was not returning. Where was he? She decided to find out.
When she entered the store she screamed his name.
Then it was a blur of paramedics, flashing lights, police, and emergency room doctors.
Michael later said none of them thought he would survive the night.
When he was still breathing the next morning, a neurosurgeon prepared to operate. But the doctor let the family know the young man's odds were poor to miserable. He said there was a 60 percent chance he'd die on the table, and a 100-percent chance he'd be a vegetable.
By then, Michael's parents had made an agonizing, middle-of-the-night trip from Houston to Austin, and they were looking for any signs of hope.
But there were none.
Finally, Michael's Dad, Rabbi Jack Segal, pulled Sharon aside. "You heard the doctor," he said. "If Michael survives, he'll be a vegetable. Go, get on with your life."
"You don't understand," Sharon said. "Mike is my life."
In 1991, Dr. J Andrew Armour of Dalhousie University in Canada discovered that the heart has its "little brain" or "intrinsic cardiac nervous system." This "heart brain" is composed of approximately 40,000 neurones that are alike neurones in the brain, meaning that the heart has its own nervous system. Thus, the heart sends more signals to the brain.
This finding would lead us to believe that Michael survived because his heart could sense that Sharon wasn't going to abandon him.
Sharon Weingarten made a choice not to break Michael Jordan Segal's heart.
She would take the semester off so that she could stay by his side. And slowly, incrementally, his outlook improved.
After three weeks in Austin, he was strong enough to transfer to a rehabilitation hospital in Houston. But he couldn't speak, and his right side was completely paralyzed.
After batteries of tests, a neuropsychologist told Michael he wasn't ever going back to college and that he needed to set more realistic goals for himself. Though he couldn't respond to her verbally, he says he thought to himself "Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do?"
Eighteen months later, he was back in his classes at UT. He had learned to talk again, albeit slowly, and to walk again, with only a limp. He could no longer write or type with his right hand, but he'd learned to function. To adapt. And when he wasn't attending his classes, he was in speech, physical and occupational therapy.
In June 1986, Michael graduated with highest honors and a 3.885 grade point average. As he walked across the stage to pick up his diploma, he received a standing ovation. He thought he couldn't possibly be prouder than he was during those few moments. But he was mistaken. The next year, in 1987, he and Sharon got married.
Then in 1990, they had their daughter, Shawn. A higher level of fulfillment was realized.
He also received a master's degree in social work from the University of Houston. His heart, he said, was full.
Professionally, he got his start working with local psychiatrists in a pain clinic. His next stop was Memorial Hermann Health System the largest not-for-profit health system in southeast Texas. In 2011, he went to work at Ben Taub, also in Houston, as a senior patient liaison. At the hospital he focuses on patients and families affected by traumatic head injuries and/or spinal cord injuries.
They're told the worst of the worst. But when they see Michael walking, talking and living, then they have hope. He is living proof that some people do get better. "I believe life is not supposed to be easy. Not for me, not for the families in this hospital, not for anybody.
Life is about overcoming obstacles" says Michael.
Michael has devoted himself to helping other trauma victims and their families. He also is a popular inspirational speaker sharing his "recipe" for recovery, happiness, and success, as well as an author with many of his stories appearing in various CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL books and other publications. He was the first recipient of Ben Taub Hospital's "Keep Hope Alive" award and the City of Houston has bestowed him with "Mike Segal Day."
Sharon would never hear Michael speak to her in quite the same way he did before that Tuesday night of February 17, 1981. She will never again experience him walking in the same manner and form as he had prior to their life changing event. Michael lost much of the use of his right side and will limp for his remaining years. But so proudly and triumphantly he will do so.
What happened to the lives of those three thieves prior to that night? What happened to their support system? Who was by their side? What personal history brought them to the paths of that fateful night?
Both Michael and Sharon Segal survived the unimaginable. They made the right choices. Together. As they have been since they met. And, as always, for Michael, with Sharon supportively by his side.
When our world feels like it is falling apart, we only need to look at Sharon Segal's heartfulness, mindfulness, selflessness, acceptance, and resilience as the benchmark of a proper support system.
There are two heros in this story. Michael, for persevering and overcoming his obstacles to go on to help others. And just as important, Sharon, for being the catalyst that saw him through it and continues to do so.
Every single person has possibility if their heart is in the right place.
To watch an empowering 8-minute interview of Sharon & Michael Segal on ABC televisions Debra Duncan Show, please click here.
To watch a very moving 4-minute video of Michael Segal being presented "Mike Segal Day" from the city of Houston, please click here
Thursday, December 10, 2020, Michael was interviewed on his story. To watch this deeply touching 30 minute zoom talk, please click here.
For more information on him, and to contact him directly, please click here or visit his Facebook page.