I Believe in Miracles

December 26, 2010

This is my dad. 

He is an artist, an inventor, a creator, an adventurer, a lover of life, a peacemaker, a spiritual giant, a loyal friend, and a loving husband, father and grandfather . . . and on December 12, 2010, we almost lost him.

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On December 12, my dad was up late - until about 2am- changing his art/pottery studio into a wood-working shop so he could begin creating his newest project: hand-crafted cedar adirondack chairs. 
As he often does when he gets wrapped up in a project, he had forgotten to eat that day, so when he laid down in bed, he wasn't feeling very well.  He rustled around for about an hour before my mom woke up. 


My dad told her he thought he was having a heart attack. 


Things progressed rather quickly from there and by the time my mom was on the phone with the 911 operator, my dad was in pretty bad shape. Thankfully, my brother, Max, was home and was able to comfort my dad while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Max gave my dad a priesthood blessing, a blessing that offered strength and comfort, and a peace in knowing that no matter what happened, God was there and was in control. 

The ambulance arrived in 9 minutes. Amidst the chaos of the EMT team entering and my now nearly unconscious father being rushed out of the house and going into full cardiac arrest before even getting to the ambulance, my mom and brother both felt calm and peaceful. 


It took the ambulance 6 minutes to arrive at the nearest hospital. During that time, my dad was brought back to life after receiving manual chest pumps and getting his heart shocked by the defibrillator, and then was coherent enough to ask the EMT team what had happened and thank them for saving him. 

He was still not out of the clear, however, and was rushed to the Emergency Room where doctors discovered a 100% blockage of the major "widowmaker" artery, and had to perform surgery to implant a stint into the artery to try to clear the blockage. 


It was during this time that my brother texted me to let me know what was going on. It was 3:30 am in California and I happened to still be awake, working on a personal history book I was writing about Matt's grandparents. I immediately called my brother and he sounded so calm about the whole situation that I felt reassured that there wasn't a need to worry - so much so that in the morning, I talked to Matt for a few minutes about other things before even remembering my dad had had a heart attack. 


The following Sunday, my little sister and her husband flew out to LA to help me drive back to Utah with the kids. Matt flew out to join us on December 23. On Christmas eve, we all visited the fire station to thank the EMTs who saved our dad.


They shared their own perspectives of what happened that morning and all expressed their amazement at my dad's recovery and the fact that he even made it through such an ordeal. One EMT said that in the 22 years in his job, he could count on one hand how many people had survived what my dad had. 


These are the men who saved my father's life: Erik Van Duren, Jason Coble, and Daniel Ramos.

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Tanner and Kaden were at the fire station with us and, much to Matt's delight, gave us an excuse to get a tour.

We got to go inside the fire truck

And even went for a ride around the neighborhood.

We left with thankful hearts and a handful of little firefighter hats.

I am so grateful for the men who responded to my mom's 911 call. They were my father's guardian angels in those early morning hours. I know that God was watching over my dad and is the reason he is still here with us today. 

I believe in miracles.