Capturing hearts
Documentary of heart transplant for New Kent football player is redemptive for him, his father and filmmaker
In November 2017, Juan MikelJones, his father, Woody Jones, and Liam Thurkettle each stared into the abyss.
Mikel-Jones, then a New Kent High sophomore, checked into Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center for what he thought was bronchitis. Instead, he was soon diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a rare heart failure that would require a heart transplant for him to live.
The strain nearly crushed Jones. A single father of three — Mikel-Jones’ mom, Nicole Mikel, succumbed to lupus when he was 4 — Jones was already battling to provide for his family when his son’s diagnosis further tested his considerable faith.
An Old Dominion University student then, Thurkettle had yet to meet Mikel-Jones or his father. Having only recently overcome suicidal urges, he still wrestled severe anxiety and depression, exacerbated by a perceived inability to meet personal expectations.
But with the abyss staring back, none blinked. Three years later, standing together and strong — “Juan Strong” as the T-shirt (one signed by his role-model Elon Musk) reads — they have collaborated on the documentary “Why Not Me?” Thurkettle produced the 78-minute film, which is scheduled for release Feb. 19 on Vimeo. A 2-minute, 18-second trailer was posted recently to juanstrongwnm.wordpress.com, where preorders (at $12.99) for the documentary are being taken.
The title, “Why Not Me?”, evolved from the attitude MikelJones adopted through his ordeal, inspired by his faith in God and a desire to inspire others. It details a journey of faith for father and son from diagnosis, to heart transplant, to Mikel-Jones’ return to health, school and, remarkably, to the football field only eight months later.
The road to the documentary was also a journey. It is one of redemption, painfully realized, by Mikel-Jones, his father and Thurkettle as they faced and conquered their demons.
From the surgical implant in December 2017 of a mechanical device to assist the pumping of blood, through heart transplant surgery in January 2018 and the return to football, Mikel-Jones made it all look so easy. Fearless in the face of contact, he started his senior football season at New Kent in 2019 as an offensive lineman.
But the agony he experienced as he awaited the transplant at the University of Virginia was anything but easy.
“I was in so much pain for weeks and months, it was hard to bear,” said Mikel-Jones, who is now a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I thought ‘If this is how I’m going to die, I want it to be quick.’
“But then I asked God to give me the strength to bear it and he did. The pain was still there, but I could handle it.”
Woody Jones was there through it all, possessed — by what were potentially his son’s final days — to video hours of Mikel-Jones’ time in three hospitals. Thurkettle says that the availability of so much “primary footage” gives “Why Not Me?” an authenticity not always present in documentaries.
“So much of what is in this film is in the moment,” said Thurkettle, who estimates 65% of the documentary is primary, versus staged, footage. “You’re seeing it and hearing it as it happened.”
The most dramatic of those moments began innocuously, as Mikel-Jones played Madden NFL Football on Xbox in his hospital bed when the door of his room in the University of Virginia’s pediatric heart unit opened unexpectedly.
“The doctor came into the room and there were cameras, and he said, ‘You know how we were just talking about how you’ve waited a long time for a heart?’” Mikel-Jones recalled. “Then he gave me two thumbs-up.
“Me and my dad busted out in tears of joy. Every bit of pressure that had been on my shoulders was lifted off.”
Thurkettle said, “It’s hard to picture dramatic stuff like that and immerse yourself in that level of emotion if you’re just listening. Having all that footage allows you to do that.
“It takes what you can’t picture and takes you right into the room and puts it right in front of your eyes, so you see and hear it.”
The realization was bittersweet for Woody.
“Another kid (a 17-year-old high school soccer player from another state) had to lose his life so my son could live,” he said. “I was happy that Juan (pronounced ju-on) could continue to live on this planet before God called him, but I was sad for that young man.”
That Jones was present for that moment was a testament to the strength he mustered through faith and friendship. Working multiple jobs as bills piled high and his automobile sometimes failed, he was shook to the core when his son was hospitalized.
“We had never talked at night, but Woody was calling me at
2 and 3 in the morning, crying,” said Katina Bailey, his friend of more than 20 years. “To hear him sound so desperate, so alone and so uncertain, I knew he was going down mentally.
“So, my mother (Catherine Bailey) and I prayed with him to calm him. I told him, ‘You’ve got to stay strong, because if
Juan sees you like this, he’ll lose hope.’ Woody showed him pure strength.”
In the aftermath of MikelJones’ ordeal, indefatigable Jones has opened a coffee shop, New Orleans Creole Coffee, in Sentara Williamsburg, while continuing to work there as an administrative associate. He’s spent his free time organizing the documentary and even discussing a potential movie deal.
“Going through this, I learned nothing can break me,” he said. “Looking at what my son went through brought me to my knees and closer to God. Maybe we can save some souls and change some lives with this documentary.”
The project has, in a sense, punctuated that process for Thurkettle. Less than four years ago, he was so suicidal “I got up to the ledge but couldn’t take that last step. It’s been a hard push in the other direction ever since.”
With the help of therapy and medication, he has persevered. He founded his company, Sliced Ham Productions, producing a stop-motion film he describes as a journey through his mind of untreated anxiety and depression.
He produced another for the “Out of the Darkness” suicide prevention event in Newport News, where he was a guest speaker this year. He says making “Why Not Me?” moved him further from the abyss.
Interviewing Mikel-Jones and his father inspired Thurkettle. He found interviewing Katina Bailey, Sentara emergency room physician Dr. David Cash, U.Va. surgeon Dr. James Gangemi and several of the close-knit, caring nurses at Sentara cathartic as well.
The one hero not featured is the heart donor, who remains anonymous. But Mikel-Jones, who dreams of playing football in college and then inventing medical products to assist heart patients, spoke with his mother.
“She told me ‘I want you to take care of that heart and take care of yourself, because you’re my son, now,’” Mikel-Jones said.
“I told her ‘I’m sorry you lost your son, but this heart won’t go to waste.
‘I’ll always be indebted and will be forever grateful to him and you. I’ll do the very best I can.’”