Through the ups and downs things were manageable until May 17th 2014 when I died. I was out for a run and came in, said hi to Katy and Ella and then dropped. My heart stopped yet 911 was treating me as a seizure since we had a family history of that. For 5 minutes I turned blue while the 911 operator was yelling at the girls NOT to do CPR since it could kill me. It was 5 minutes before the EMT’s showed up and stated CPR.
They worked on me for 45 minutes and “paddled” me 6 or 7 times only to get a heartbeat 3 minutes from the hospital. The crew from Gwinnett Fire Stations 13 and 21 did their job and now I was in the hands of the doctors, who immediately put me in a coma and chilled my body to allow the organs to recover. Through those days everyone was being told that IF I survived, I would have brain damage. I apparently had a stream of friends and family visit, then Acts 9:40 appeared to have happened:
But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.
On May 20th, two close friends from 12 Stone Church, Amiee and Patty, stopped by to pray over me. During this time of intense prayer, I responded and started coming out of the coma. The nurses freaked, told them to stop and started to load me up on meds to keep me in the coma. Within a couple hours it didn’t matter what they did, I was out of my coma.
Now the first thing I did was freak out since the white board had “5/20/15” written on it, so I assumed I had been in a coma for a year. I had a ventilator crammed down my throat and could not communicate at all, so my flailing around was consistent with a person with brain damage. The removed the ventilator and immediately started to pepper me with questions.
The first was “if I was standing in a puddle of water and I had rubber boots on, would my feet be wet?” I though what a stupid question and asked “how deep is the puddle?” That was when Katy sighed relief things appeared normal. I still had an uphill battle, but at least things were positive. After two weeks bouncing between ICU and the cardio wing, I walked out of Emory a new man.
A couple things came from this, first is the power Jesus has given us is real. John 14:12 has Jesus telling us we will do greater things:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
I was covered with so much prayer that I believe that defied the odds of my survival. Amiee and Patty’s pray brought me out of the coma, no matter what the doctors wanted. I died, was brought back to a medically maintainable state of life and three days later I woke to a story of my death. I did not die for three days like Jesus, but was only “out of it” for those three days. But the power of prayer was the key I believe in my recovery. Everyone else was doing their best, but the odds were heavily stacked against me. I have only learned this more after talking with Dave Yarbrough, the lead paramedic of the team who saved me, told me multiple stories of my scenario that did not work out.
What did I take from this? First I am humbled to have been spared life by God! Why me? Why did I survive and not others who experience what happened? Second, I have modified what I eat, since that is what cause the conditions to have a failure. That modification has changed my metabolism such that I don’t need to train incessantly to keep the weight off. It’s easy to keep at a health weight and my blood numbers look significantly better! Third, I am thankful each and every day. This is no longer a “cliché” but reality since I was so close to the grave. With that I thank everyone who had a hand in my recovery, without the team from station’s 13 and 21, without the team of doctors and staff, without the covering of prayer from everyone I would not have survived. My HEART goes out to each and every one who had a part in saving me.