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| UW-Madison, Henry Mackaman was guitarist, producer and co-founder of the dream-pop band Phantom Vibration in St. Paul. |
Henry Mackaman, from St. Paul, Minn., was a DJ on WSUM-FM student radio and a guitarist and producer with the Twin Cities band Phantom Vibration, which he started with high school buddies and still played in. The 21-year-old was a double major in economics and English, and had studied abroad across Europe.
Late Saturday, Mackaman went to the emergency department not far from his off-campus home with a 104-degree fever. He was sent home after a chest X-ray ruled out pneumonia, his family said in a posting to a Caring Bridge website. He felt better the next day, talked to his parents and visited his sick girlfriend.
Early Monday, he walked back to the hospital because he had a headache, trouble speaking and his right hand "felt funny."
He was brain-dead two days later, Meriter Hospital in Madison confirmed Thursday.
His family took some comfort in honoring his wish to help others in the event of his death.
"All of us are proud of Henry for making the decision to be an organ donor," his mother, Meredith Mackaman, wrote Wednesday on Caring Bridge. "This generosity shouldn't surprise anyone who knows him. With his decision, up to 54 people will benefit from the incredible life that Henry lived."
When Mackaman went to the hospital emergency department Monday with new symptoms, two days after his first visit, doctors ordered more tests.
"Many tests and a lumbar puncture later, my body decided it was going to start seizing," according to a Caring Bridge post that was written in his voice. "I was moved to ICU, put on a ventilator, and drugged with copious amounts of antibiotics to kill my hitchhiker - meningococcal bacteria (meningitis). What a bugger! Keep checking back as I will keep you updated as I kick this guy out!"
At 1:10 p.m., Tuesday, his Caring Bridge page noted the bacterium was called Neisseria meningitidis.
"I got a day to kick this thing in the butt," the posting said. "They are supporting with fluids and hyperventilation to help reduce my swollen brain."
Twenty-four hours later, at 1:23 p.m. Wednesday, his mother posted that he had lost the battle.
"Today we are all devastated," she wrote on Caring Bridge. "Our strong and loved son, grandson, brother, nephew, and friend has lost his fight against bacterial meningitis. When we wrote our last update, the ball was in Henry's court. He needed to show some sign that his brain was still active. After many tests today, the doctors have determined that there is no activity there."
Meredith Mackaman asked friends and family to "please keep Henry and all of us in your thoughts and prayers."
"Henry's spirit and the joy he brought to us will live on any time we share stories of him, listen to music he recorded, and retell the jokes and bad puns he laid on us," she wrote. "Thank you Henry, for touching our lives. You were more loved than you'll ever know."
University Health Services and the Division of Student Life are offering support to students affected by the loss.
"Henry was so loved by everyone who knew him, both in the Twin Cities and here in Madison," Dean of Students Lori Berquam said Thursday. "After spending time with his family, I know Henry would be grateful to know that his organs will benefit others."
'A hard blow' for musicians
Mackaman grew up in St. Paul and recently moved to Madison.
He returned home frequently to keep the band Phantom Vibration active in the Twin Cities, according to a Minnesota Public Radio blog, The Current.
The band announced last month that it was working on a new album, which would serve as a follow-up to its trio of debut concept EPs. The band had just played the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis on March 23, the blog reported.
"The sudden loss comes as a hard blow for the young community of up-and-coming musicians with which Phantom Vibration often shared bills," the blog post said.
Mackaman's bandmate Daniel Clinton-McCausland wrote on Phantom Vibration's Facebook page Wednesday:
"Today we learned that Henry had entered a state from which he wouldn't be coming back to greet us, and now we (the band, our friends, supporters, families) must bear the burden of losing such an incredible person. He in so many ways exemplified what we strived for, and all we can do now is to live on holding up the same belief that he brought to our music."
Added Mickey Davis, who frequently performed with Phantom Vibration in his project the Olsen Twinns: "His enthusiasm for and skill at creating music was a constant inspiration for everyone around him. I wouldn't be the person I am today in music if it weren't for him."
Mackaman is survived by his father, Douglas Mackaman, mother Meredith Leigh Mackaman, brother Owen Lee Mackaman and stepmother Maggie O'Hara.
His father, mother and stepmother are all UW-Madison graduates. The university said memorial information would be shared as it becomes available.
1,500 cases a year
Students who were in close contact with Mackaman have been treated with antibiotics as a precaution.
A vaccine that protects against meningococcal disease is recommended for all college students. While it's considered effective against most strains of the disease, the vaccine doesn't protect against one strain that accounts for two-thirds of infections in infants and one-third in adolescents and adults.
It isn't known whether Mackaman received the vaccine. The first dose is recommended at age 11 or 12, and a booster is recommended five years later. The booster recommendation came out two years ago, when public health officials began seeing cases among college students who had been vaccinated as preteens.
Of the average 1,500 people who get meningococcal disease each year, 10% to 15% die, even with antibiotic treatment. Of those who survive, up to 20% have permanent side effects, including brain damage, hearing loss and loss of limbs, according to the National Meningitis Association.
The disease is not highly contagious, though the bacteria that transmits it can be passed through kissing or by sharing cups, eating utensils and cigarettes.
The disease often progresses rapidly and most often causes meningitis, an inflammation of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
"There's a reason there's a vaccine for it," said Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
"It's an ugly disease. Certainly, those of us who are in infectious diseases fear it."
10% carries bacteria
Infectious illnesses such as meningococcal disease tend to spread more easily where larger groups of people gather. That's why college students in dormitories and military personnel in boot camps are at increased risk, and why the military actively vaccinates against it.
Many colleges and universities require prospective students to get the vaccination.
UW campuses do not require vaccination for admission, said UW System spokesman David Giroux. State law requires only that students living in a residence hall provide the university with their immunization history, he said.
"I'm told that roughly 85% of entering students indicate they have received meningococcal vaccine," Giroux added.
About 10% of the general population carries the meningococcal bacteria in the nose and throat and don't become ill, said Willoughby, the Children's Hospital pediatrician.
But those people can pass the bacteria to others, whose immune systems are not able to handle it. Some have a "biological chink in their armor" that prevents them from keeping the bacteria at bay, Willoughby said.
"We do know there's select immune defects that make you more likely to get sick," he said, adding that a viral cold or allergies also may splinter the wall of immunity.
With advances in genetic medicine, physicians someday will be able to look at a person's DNA and predict bad outcomes or deaths from the disease, he said.
Meningococcal disease may feel like a cold at the onset - sore throat, fever and general malaise, Willoughby said.
Antibiotics take a day to be effective, and sometimes the bacterium moves faster than the antibiotics, he said.
"What's worrisome is nonspecific symptoms, when someone goes to the doctor, is sent home, and gets a lot sicker in a day or so."
Advanced symptoms include high fever (greater than 101 degrees), severe headache, neck stiffness and confusion.
Willoughby offered this advice for students: "All you can do is tell them to take care of themselves so they don't get too tired and become more susceptible to infections. Also, don't share drinks, straws or smokes. If you have a cold, sore throat and fever and get a bad headache or aren't feeling well, call your mom or dad and ask your roommate to keep an eye on you."
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