Accident Cuts Short Ty’s Promising Career

Michael T. Ty, a neurology resident at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and a Harvard Medial School (HMS) alumnus, died unexpectedly April 3, as the result of a construction accident that killed two others as well.

Ty, 28, was driving down Boylston Street when a 10-ton lift platform crashed down on his car. The construction accident also killed two workers who were building Emerson College’s new Piano Row residence hall and student center.

Ty graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1999 from Johns Hopkins University and received his MD in 2004 from HMS under the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Those who knew Ty considered him gifted not only in the sciences but also in the humanities, social services, and theology. After graduating from college, Ty received a Kennedy Sheldon Fellowship, which allowed him to study moral theology and philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In the Vatican, he met his future wife, Robin Crotty, and together they founded Fiat Productions, a Catholic theater Company.

Ty’s involvement in religion was also coupled with a commitment to charity.

Ty met Priest Chaplain Bruce Teague when he interned at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. When his internship was over, Ty chose to stay on as a volunteer continuing to treat patients and developing a computer program to document the hospital’s spiritual care program.

Teague calls Ty a “medical humanist.”

“Michael was not only a true scientist. He also cared about humanities,” he says. “He wrote plays and was a concert pianist. If we could all have a touch of Michael, we would all live in a better place.”

Dorothy “Dobbie” Vasquez was Ty’s Latin teacher for four years at the Menlo School and also remembers his creativity. She recalls being impressed by a scrapbook that Ty designed for a Greek and Latin club of which Ty was a member.

“It was breathtaking....He took a wooden block, and he carved mountains with beautiful pencil drawings,” says Vasquez, who was also Ty’s adviser for three years.

Ty is survived by his wife, Robin, his father George, his mother Bonnie Tsan, and sister, Monica.

Ty’s family requested privacy during a period of mourning but released a statement.

“Love was the dominant force in the life of Michael Ty, beloved husband, brother and son. Michael’s humble willingness to serve others and his devotion were an inspiration to all who were graced by his presence,” it read.

The weekend before he died, Ty completed a paper on the mechanisms of brain cell recovery, according to Teague. HMS also released a statement saying that Ty’s death was especially tragic because his research could have made great contributions to the field.

“[Ty]’s life was cut tragically short before he had the chance to deliver on all his promise,” the statement reads. “[He] was destined to have a stellar career as a physician-scientist.”

—Staff writer Doris A. Hernandez can be reached at dahernan@fas.harvard.edu.