CHICAGO – A Chicago veteran battled life and death when he fought in World War II. He had to do it again earlier this year just as he was getting ready to mark a major milestone in his life.
What we know:
Nov. 11 is a big day for Emil Hirsch. It’s his 100th birthday.
As a World War II veteran who was drafted at just 18 years old, he’s survived a lot to make it to this day.
“Well, you had to be slow enough for them to see you and fast enough that they didn’t shoot you. It wasn’t only me, there was about a hundred of us spread over seven miles,” Hirsch said.
He landed at Omaha Beach and survived the Battle of the Bulge despite having the precarious job of having to go from foxhole to foxhole during the day while U.S. troops were getting ready to attack.
“So we were basically on stage. You wanted to go and show activity long enough for them to see, but not long enough for one of their snipers to catch you. So that’s what I was doing that whole time. That’s what got me my, uh… Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman,” Hirsch said.
Sounds pretty nerve-racking, but not for him.
“I never was a nerve wreck, which is why I survived, because I always loved music. And whenever I was doing nothing, I always, and I loved the songs in the 1930s, you know, ‘Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody’ and all that. And so I would always hum music or whistle to myself and not think about all the problems that were around me,” Hirsch said.
He eventually returned home to build a successful business and a family.
Two years ago, he received another honor for his bravery in World War II. Hirsch was appointed a knight in the French Legion of Honor for helping to liberate France from Nazi occupation.
He still enjoys his music. It proved to be his best support yet again when he faced perhaps his biggest battle earlier this year.
“So, Emil is really an impressive, now 100-year-old man who developed a very bad skin cancer,” said Dr. Bruce Brockstein of Endeavor Health.
Brockstein is Hirsch’s oncologist who helped him fight an aggressive form of skin cancer that had developed on the left side of his forehead and scalp.
It was the second time and in the same spot. Since he already had radiation and surgery, Brockstein had to come up with a different plan of attack.
“With the new medicines with the drugs that we call immunotherapy drugs or checkpoint inhibitors, the side effect profile is such that you can treat people in their 90s and now Mr. Hirsch will be the second or third person in their hundreds that I’ve actually treated with really a side effect profile and an outcome not different than treating people in their 80s or 60s or 50s. So it’s been a beauty for us to be able to treat good people who are otherwise healthy like Mr. Hirsch, who is 100, and be able to kind of take age out of the equation and do what the right thing is for the patient,” Brockstein said.
Hirsch had an immunotherapy treatment every three weeks from February to October.
What’s next:
Brockstein says his cancer is now in remission. He says the odds are on Hirsch’s side that the cancer will stay away this time because of how well he responded to this treatment.
“Well, it’s like everything else. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. And if you worry about it, you’re giving yourself double problems. So I don’t worry about whatever happens, happens. And I’m usually told what might happen. And that’s fine. And in this case, it amazed everybody,” Hirsch said.
The Source: The information in this story came from Emil Hirsch and Dr. Bruce Brockstein of Endeavor Health.
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