Seahawks fan shows donor's family heartfelt thanks

Jeff Hansen couldn't ask to watch the Seahawks' first home game last year.

At least not out loud.

Hansen was still on a ventilator and in the hospital after receiving a heart transplant on Sept. 16, 2006. He wrote down the request to watch Seattle play Arizona at Qwest Field.

On Sunday, Hansen stood in Section 336, a purple Ravens stocking cap on his head and a black Baltimore jersey cloaking the true colors of a lifelong Seahawks fan.

The Ravens were the favorite team of Michael Watts, a military police officer killed last year in a car accident. Watts was an organ donor, and Hansen received Watts' heart in a transplant.

Watts' parents still have season tickets in Baltimore.

Hansen, along with the Living Legacy Foundation, which promotes organ donation, together came up with the idea of Hansen wearing Ravens colors at the Seahawks game in tribute to Watts and to raise awareness.

"At first I was a little reluctant because I'm such a huge Seahawks fan," Hansen said. "But I decided it was for a great cause and it was a great way to honor my donor."

Hansen, 32 and a former mortgage broker who now works in public records for King County, was diagnosed in 2004 with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. He had an enlarged heart that did not pump properly. He had a pacemaker installed, and in 2006 was put on the transplant list.

Hansen worked full time until September 2006, when he started feeling ill at work. He went to the hospital, where he was put on an IV drip. Two days later, he was still in the hospital when a nurse came in to tell him to stop eating breakfast, he was about to get a transplant.

He spent nearly three weeks in the hospital, and a little more than one year later, he's back at work, playing basketball every Sunday and exercising on a treadmill. Last month he earned his scuba-diving certification in Hawaii.

Through an intermediary agency, he contacted his donor's family in August.

"I let them know how my life was before the transplant, how it's been after the transplant," Hansen said. "I kind of wanted to wait to make sure that I was healthy and I was accepting the heart."

Hansen wrote a lengthy e-mail. He received a response from his donor's widow, Rachel Watts, the next day. That's when he found out that his donor had been 25 years old and stationed in Montana with the Air Force as a military police officer. Michael Watts had been away in Wyoming for six weeks at a training session. He returned home, calling his wife from the airport to say he'd be home in about an hour.

He was killed in a car accident in a snowstorm after another driver lost control of her vehicle because of a medical emergency. Watts' wife was nine months pregnant and she gave birth to their second daughter the same day Hansen received her husband's heart.

"It was pretty emotional," Hansen said of the letter. "She just mentioned how good of a person he was, how happy they were to know that the heart went to a good person."

Hansen held a benefit concert on Sept. 30 with proceeds going to the Living Legacy Foundation and the American Heart Association. He would like to start a nonprofit foundation named after his donor.

The Living Legacy Foundation is a Northwest organization seeking to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation. The foundation sent the Ravens jersey to Hansen. He bought the stocking cap himself, plus a game program, and he plans to send everything to Watts' family.

Hansen was born in 1975, the same year Seattle was granted an expansion NFL franchise. His father, Gerald, bought season tickets for the inaugural season, and Hansen has held his own season tickets since 2000.

Lifelong fans like Hansen don't have second-favorite teams, but for one afternoon, he put on the opponent's colors over the top of his Seahawks shirt in honor and appreciation of Watts and his family.