BREAKING UPDATE: The Oak Creek Police Department announced Wednesday night Milwaukee Police Officer James Nowak has died.
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The family of a gravely injured Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officer are planning one final act of service. Family told TMJ4 News Jimmy Nowak will have his final surgery Wednesday night where his organs will be saved for donation to help others.
It's a story that's weighing heavy on the hearts of the entire region.
Jimmy Nowak was off-duty Sunday night when his car hit a semi-truck near Oak Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Oak Creek.
Friends and family tell TMJ4 they found out Tuesday morning that Nowak is in the surgical intensive care unit on a ventilator. We're told his heart is still beating, but he has very little brain function.
His family wrote, "Jimmy would have wanted to help other people because he was a giving guy and very loving, so we decided to donate his organs to save other lives."
According to Versiti, a single person could save up to eight lives through organ donation.
In a video posted Tuesday evening, Julia Nowak, Jimmy's wife, sent a message to her husband.
"Hey babe, it's me. I just want to say, I miss you so much and a lot of people probably miss you a lot. I really love you. I know that a lot of people are hurting right now and I'm really hurting. My heart is in a million little pieces. But you were always the life of the party and always made everybody else happy. I want to keep your happiness going because it's keeping me going. I thought that looking at pictures and videos of you would be really hard but it's all I've been doing all day while I was with you at the hospital and I just want to keep those pictures and videos of you going so everyone can remember you the same way I remember you."
"Jimmy was just a beautiful, wonderful, happy soul. Like I said before, if you knew him and didn't like him, there was something wrong with you," Stephanie Gregory said.
Gregory's a friend of the Nowak's and said she's been neighbors with Jimmy Nowak's wife's father for years.
"All around good guy. Good police officer, good friend, a good family member, a good husband," Dean Bratel said.
Bratel's cousins with Jimmy Nowak's wife. He said he and Nowak used to work out together and he was always there making Bratel laugh.
Both Bratel and Gregory said they're still in shock after Sunday's horrific accident.
For the last two days, family said doctors have been doing tests on Nowak's organs. Soon, doctors will take out his breathing tubes and operate to save his organs for donation.
"Organ donation leaves a lasting legacy," Colleen McCarthy, VP of Organ and Tissue donation at Versiti said. "When families say goodbye to their loved one, for them to know that their loved one will live on and impact others for years to come brings such peace and comfort."
While Nowak will always be remembered as a hero, it came from much more than just the badge he wore for 12 years. Now, in his final act of heroism, he will be giving families across the country a new lease on life.
A hero, even in the afterlife. Wednesday night, his sacrifice will be honored with an honor walk.
"An honor walk shows deep gratitude to our organ donors," McCarthy said. "It's the ultimate show of gratitude to our donor families and organ donor heroes."
McCarthy says, when a donor goes through an honor walk, hospital staff line the walls of the hallways as the organ donor is transported to the operating room.
"Just to give love and support to that family as they say their final goodbye," McCarthy said. "To show our deepest respect to our organ donors and to their families for making this very amazing decision, we want to make sure they feel honored and respected and deeply cared for."
To become an organ donor, you can visit DonateLifeWisconsin.org.
The deepest of care and compassion can be seen at the site of this crash. A makeshift memorial popped up with flowers and other trinkets of love and respect growing by the hour.
"I think things like this and these gestures add a little and show a little love they so need right now," Gregory said referencing the tribute for Nowak on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Wednesday, friends of the family and others continued to stop by the tribute.
"Just speechless. I don't know what to say," Jim Riemann said.
Riemann and his wife know Julia Nowak, Jimmy Nowak's wife. Reimann said his wife taught Julia Nowak in first grade and they've kept in touch ever since.
"Julia, she's always doing something for somebody. She's always talking up her school in West Allis and gets people to donate and help out. They're just good people. It's horrible that this happened to them," Reimann explained.
A cross stands tall on the corner, where the accident happened, draped in a thin blue line flag. Flowers have piled up over the course of the day from people coming to pay their respects.
A tribute that was all too familiar for Nowak.
In February, Milwaukee Police Officer Peter Jerving was shot and killed in the line of duty. He'd been Nowak's partner for the last four years.
Something family said Nowak was still processing.
"They were best friends and not only partners for four years. I believe Jerving was a police officer for four years and all four years Jimmy was his partner," Bratel said.
Two friends who served and protected and gave their all to family, friends, and the entire southeast Wisconsin community.
Wednesday, family of Jimmy and Julia Nowak shared these photos with TMJ4. An intimate moment of the couple hand-in-hand.
Questions still surround Sunday's accident.
We know the driver of the semi-truck is cooperating with police, however, on Pennsylvania Avenue where the incident happened, signs are posted that prohibit semi-trucks.
TMJ4 called the company of the tractor-trailer involved and never heard back.
Loved ones of the Nowak's have set up a GoFund Me to help with medical and funeral expenses when the time comes.
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