Heart Song: The Day I Almost Died, Full of Miracles

October 30^th 1995 was the worst day of my life; the day I almost died. 

I worked for a copier sales company and I was a sales person there.  I was done with any work I had left to do, and was just passing time in the office with two of my co-workers who were also friends.  One of the guys in the office had a proposal to bring out to Eatonville, but for reasons I can’t remember, asked if anyone in the office wanted to drop it off for him.  Our office was in downtown Tacoma so that would mean about an hour drive out and an hour drive back.  Since I was done, and being the spontaneous person that I am, jumped at the chance to get out of the office.  It was a perfect fall day, blue skies, sunshine, fall leaves changing color and a crisp feeling in the air.  So I asked one of my friends if she would like to ride along.  After thinking about it, she said no.  So I headed out by myself.

I dropped off the proposal and was heading out of Eatonville when I remembered seeing a sign that pointed back to Tacoma a different way than the way I had gone.  It was Eatonville Cutoff Road, so feeling adventurous I took the turn hoping to arrive back at the office sooner.

I had my new Jars of Clay cd playing in the cd player (that’s a Christian band) singing along, worshipping God for such a beautiful day.  I remember passing by beautiful farmland and from the top of a little hill, seeing a stop sign up ahead.  I thought, “I wonder if I am supposed to continue on this road or do I make a turn somewhere?”

It's hard to see, but the stop sign is just up ahead

That was my last thought, my last memory of the intersection. 

The next thing I hear is a woman’s voice asking me questions.  I felt heavy and my eyes were closed, I thought I was dreaming asleep in my bed.  I felt my back ache horribly and I wanted to sit up, but because of the heaviness, I couldn’t.

Then my next memory is of an ER room, people all around me, asking me strange questions, which I couldn’t figure out why.  After that, I hear a helicopter, and I get excited (even though I am strapped down to a gurney with a neck brace on) because I have never ridden in a helicopter and always wanted to.  I tried to sit up while riding on the helicopter, but I couldn’t, I tried to stay awake, but the heaviness took over.

I arrived at Harborview in Seattle and found myself in another ER room.  By this time, family and friends were coming in, but I couldn’t piece together what was happening.  I could only live in the moment.  So at this point, I had no idea why the man sitting next to me was pulling glass out of the left half of my face and ear, or why I found myself alone in an CT-scan room, or why I was waking up the next day in a hospital bed with a nurse dressed up with Halloween earrings and scrubs.

I had broken my pelvis in six places, had glass embedded in the left half of my face, ear and some in my hand, and major bruising.  I had been T-Boned on the drivers side by a recycling truck going 40 mph.  The force of the impact pushed my lower half of my body through the center console of the car and into the passenger seat.  My upper body twisted and fell over into the passenger seat forcing my legs to my left to be crushed under the driver’s side door. 

Here’s where the miracle’s come in:

My friend, who I had asked to come along, who was pregnant with twins, would have also been in that accident if she had decided differently.

The woman’s voice I heard was a nurse, who was on her way home from work.  I found out later that she has an agreement with herself to never stop at car accidents.  This time, she just felt something inside her that told her to make an exception this time.  So she did.  No other medical persons were there yet.  She was the first, and she was the one keeping me conscious and calm through the first part of my nightmare.

There was a volunteer fire department that was only a half a mile down the road.  When the men got there, they couldn’t pull me out of the car because of the damage, so they had to use the Jaws of Life.  When they used those massive Jaws to cut the top of the car off, they broke apart on the last cut.  They were able to pull me out.

I later found out from a medic who arrived on the scene, that when they pulled me out, my heart rate dropped so low that they thought they had lost me.

I also found out later that my seatbelt had broken at the impact or just before???  Who knows, but if my seatbelt had done it’s job and held me in place, I would have been crushed by the steering wheel unable to fall into the passenger seat.

The doctors originally thought that I had internal bleeding, crushed ankles, broken spleen and a broken pelvis.  I only had the broken pelvis.  The doctors were amazed.  They were also surprised to find that the bone that I had broken into six places hadn’t shifted during the accident.  Every break was perfectly lined up in my pelvis.  I didn’t need surgery because of that alignment, so I was able to let it heal on my own.

Two months later, after physical therapy, a wheelchair, a walker and a cane, I had retrained my body to walk again.  Three years after that, I was completely healed by God of all pain…but that’s another Heart Song……

October 30^th 1995 was the day I almost died and the day God saved me from death.

Has there been a time in your life where you’ve seen the hand of God?  Unexplainable times where you might have died, but God saved you?