At the Tufts Medical Center in Boston they call him the “Miracle Man.”

They see him as a man who shouldn’t be alive and yet, as of today, Michael Ashworth, 58, is on his way to recovery after almost 10 years of heart problems and what he calls a “baker’s dozen” of surgeries.

Michael, an insurance broker for most of his life, is married to Leslie Ashworth, 57, and is the father of four children, Thomas and Jim Ashworth, Kate Ashworth and Sarah Lynch.

In late 2003, Michael had a heart attack and wasn’t even aware of it until February of the next year. He had gone in for a shoulder issue and doctor’s told him he had experienced a heart attack.

Only a few months later, on April 4, Michael went into his first heart surgery where his left ventricle was reconstructed. By the end of 2004 Michael was using a defibrillator.

Leslie said, “He kept getting infections. His heart was deteriorating and he was, too.”

Michael explained that when the heart isn’t pumping blood correctly, your body doesn’t receive the necessary oxygen and can be harmed because of it. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and put on the transplant list in 2010.

“My heart could not be fixed and it was imperative that I got a new one,” Michael said. “My heart just couldn’t do its job on its own anymore. It needed help pumping blood through my body.”

An LVAD (left ventricle assist device) was implanted while Michael waited for his transplant. The lifesaving device helps the heart pump blood throughout the body.

“He was basically battery powered for almost a year,” Kate said.

Kate, who works as a nurse, had been living in Florida, but when her father’s condition worsened she moved back to Rhode Island.

On Sept. 13, 2014, the Ashworth family was out to breakfast when they received a call at 9:16 a.m. Leslie saw Michael’s far off stare and assumed he had another infection and they would be making their way to Tufts after breakfast. Michael looked at his family and told them the hospital had found him a heart, the heart that would save his life. There was no waiting, and the family immediately began their commute to Tufts Medical Center. The family was so emotional and in utter disbelief that Michael actually drove them all up into Boston.

When Dr. David DeNofrio, the director of Tufts Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Center, asked how Michael was feeling his family outed him for cutting down trees the day before.

“It was the most surreal day,” Kate said. “We were just listening to music and talking, it was the weirdest experience. I can remember it so vividly. My dad was very quiet; I have no idea what was going through his mind.”

Michael has no memory of the day, but that may be for the best.

After only receiving the call at 9 in the morning, Michael was in surgery by 3 p.m. and wasn’t out for more than 12 hours. The surgeons experienced almost every complication possible during the surgery and there was a question if Michael would make it through the operation. Leslie said that Dr. DeNofrio confided in her and said if heart transplant always went the way Michael’s did, doctors would never do them.

“That hospital deserves all the kudos in the world. I have a nurse friend who when she heard what happened to Michael looked at me and said he shouldn’t be alive,” Leslie said.

Michael was in a medically induced coma after the transplant with his chest left open in case there was any other complications. Kate explained that for medical reasons patients are only allowed to have their chest opened for surgery three times.

“His transplant was his third surgery,” Kate said, “fingers crossed, hopefully this is his last.”

Sara said, “You pick up on the medical stuff quickly when you’re in the hospital as often as we were, but sometimes it was good not to know the medical side of everything. I could be calm and collected.”

Once Michael was awake he still had a long road of recovery.

He, as well as the family, became very close with the staff at Tufts and Michael quickly picked up the name of “miracle man” when they heard his story.

“I got really close with the staff. I was there for some people’s first day and I was their first patient, I have been there for last days, engagements and pregnancies. They would come eat lunch in my room with me and my family. They really cared,” Michael said.

Leslie said they even started close relationships with other families at the medical center.

She said, “The people you bond with and the stories you hear in the waiting room makes you stop for a second and realize just how lucky you are and how thankful.”

Michael and the rest of the Ashworths are most thankful to the family who donated the heart that saved Michael’s life.

The Ashworth’s explained that they cannot speak directly to the family of the donor, but heard he was a younger gentleman.

The donor family has called UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, to see how Michael is doing, but the Ashworth’s were nervous because for a while Michael was not doing well.

Now that he is on the way to recovery, the family would be open to sitting down with the donor’s family to thank them.

Sara said she couldn’t encourage people enough to become organ donors.

“It’s horrible that a young gentleman had to die, but we can’t thank that family enough for everything that heart has done for our family and how many people it has touched already.”

Kate said, “Looking at him now, you would never know what he has been through. It’s hard looking back on everything. There were a lot of sleepless nights in the hospital waiting rooms where we weren’t sure he was going to make it.”

Michael said the journey has been a tough one, but he is happy to finally be on the other side with his surgeries hopefully behind him.

“It has been a rough road. Whenever I had to go into a surgery it was a question if I would even wake up after. You make peace with yourself and the world.”

Now, Michael plans on speaking for Tufts about his heart transplant, as he did before about his experiences with the LVAD.

“It’s survival of the fittest; you just have to keep going and keep fighting. I had a very aggressive approach to the whole experience and you need to be aggressive; you need to be a fighter or else you’re not going to make it.”

The transplant cost $1.6 million, and over the past 10 years Michael estimates that his care has cost approximately $4.5 million to $5 million.

“I am a perfect example of why insurance companies lose money,” he said.

Michael still travels up to Boston for check-ups and will be on anti-rejection pills for the rest of his life.

“Healthcare is a wonderful thing, but it takes an act of God to get the anti-rejection medication.”

To help alleviate some of the costs for their father, Sara and Kate, with the help of Sarah’s husband Tom Lynch, held a fundraiser on March 15 at the Knights of Columbus.

“The goal wasn’t to pay for everything but just to help ease the burden of purchasing medication. He will be on these pills for the rest of his life,” Sara said.

Originally, the fundraiser was only supposed to be a raffle, but after Sara attended a Funny 4 Funds show she hired Bill Simas and Mike Murray to perform. More than 230 people showed up for the sold out show and various businesses sponsored tables.

Simas, one of the founders and performers for Funny 4 Funds, said, “Sara was just at one of my shows to support someone else and she saw the power of what our show can do. She approached me about doing one for her father and hired me that night. We are very passionate about paying it forward.”

The family was so busy mingling and making sure everything went smoothly they barely remember the fundraiser, but Sarah said it felt “like just another night out.”

Simas assured it was a night of great laughs.

“Laughter is the best medicine even if that’s cliché,” he said.

By the end of the night, when it was announced how much money was raised and the Ashworth family stood on the stage to receive the check, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room according to Simas.

Michael said, “It was very humbling seeing just how many old friends came out.”

Kate said, “There were people there we haven’t seen in years and they just stopped by to see how he was doing, just say hey and show their support.”

Altogether, the family raised over $20,000 at the event.

The Funny 4 Funds show itself raised $15,500, a record-breaking amount for the organization.

Simas said, “Let’s put it this way, you don’t raise over $15,000 if people don’t like you. From what I heard that night Michael had built up a lot of good will and that night was his turn to get some of that support back.”

The family thanks Athenian Deli and Antonio’s Bakery for donating food for the event and National Auto Body,

Malo Recchia & Co., Hickey & Associates, Governor Francis Inn, Saugys, John Cicilline, J. Vincent Cicilline, Bobby Powers and Teresa Malo for sponsoring tables at the fundraiser.

If people would like to donate they can make a check payable to the Have a Heart Fund, c/o Coastway Credit Union, 2089 Warwick Ave.