Back to Life

I remember the sequence of events as if it were yesterday. It was a cool March morning in 2005 and I had just returned from a meeting with the International Program of my company, two floors below my office. I am a civil engineer and, including North America, I have worked on five continents in the field of hydrologic and hydraulic monitoring and analysis.

I walked back up the stairs to my office knowing I must call the Honduras Embassy to explain a proposal of new work. But I can’t remember what came next, and it is what comes next that reveals the miracle of God’s love and, subsequently, the power of prayer that brought my life back from the brink of death. 

At 11:00 that morning, our secretary took her lunch break as she does every day like clock work. Once she reached the basement cafeteria, she later told me something told her to go back to her office—which she did.

When she got to her desk, she looked into my office and saw me lying on the floor in what was later diagnosed as a coma. She hurriedly called the emergency number and went down the hall for more help. Within minutes, the building emergency personnel team was in my office lifting my body onto a gurney. I was rushed to a nearby hospital where it was determined that I had suffered a cerebral aneurysm. They evacuated me by helicopter to another area hospital where neuro-radiologists were ready and waiting to operate on my brain.

My wife was called and she rushed to the hospital. She was told that I would probably not make it through the night. If I did, I would not be the same man she married. The aneurysm was large, about five times larger than normal, and blood had gotten into my brain so the prognosis was very dim. Medical statistics indicated my chances were about 7:1 to live and about 12:1 to recover to my former self. About half of the people who suffer a cerebral aneurysm die before reaching the hospital, about half of those that make it to the hospital die on the operating table, and the vast majority of those left die of complications later.

My wife and I have five children. We have been so fortunate to be able to raise them without her having to pursue work outside our home. But now she faced the very real future of having to raise and provide for the two boys still at home by herself. This was an immediate and inexorable life-changing experience for her.

The day of the aneurysm, our family came to our side in force—brother, nephew, daughter, mother-in-law—all driving through the night or flying to be there to support us and, most importantly, to pray.

After the operation, days went by while I was monitored for stroke, seizure and other complications. I was in the ICU for 17 days, brain dead for all intents and purposes with a complete loss of memory. Those days are a blank for me, but a nightmare for my family. 

Then one night I woke up and asked the nurse next to my bed why she was there. She said she was supposed to make sure I didn’t get up. I was bewildered. I told her my head hurt much too much to get up. She said my headache had not prevented me from pulling all the tubes out of my head, arms, and elsewhere several times in the last two and a half weeks. I assured her I would not do that again. I was back. I didn’t remember anything, but I was back. What had happened?

Hundreds of people had prayed for my recovery, that’s what happened. From Saskatchewan to Honduras, hundreds of people asked God to heal my aching brain, and He did.  

The neuro-surgeons were in awe.  They called me a ‘miracle man.’ I should have been dead, or at best, in a wheel-chair in front of a sunny window for the rest of my days. The medical industry is in itself a miraculous industry in America, but I had defied even their abilities and beliefs.

I’m the grandson of a share-cropper. I’m a Christian, nobody special, and I’m also a sinner.  I pray every morning and every evening and thank God for the blessings He has continually given me throughout my life. Now, more than ever, I thank the Lord for the miracle He performed in me, the second life he gave me. I have a purpose, part of which is to reach out and tell others about this miracle.

Why I’ve survived for over two years from something that should have killed me proves that miracles happen and can happen for you if you believe in the power of prayer and in the ominous power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In His light and path are all the answers to all the questions in this short and sometimes very painful existence.