JOY Stories
Randy
God is there beside us
I died of a Sudden Coronary Arrest in church. SCA is not the same as a heart attack. Despite the pain, people sometimes drive themselves to the hospital while having a heart attack. SCA is when the electrical signal of the heart is replaced with a heart seizure. When this happens, a person instantly collapses unconscious. There is about an eight-minute window when CPR must begin. I was working in the tech booth during the service and fell against the guy seated next to me. He had been an Army Ranger and knew to start performing CPR right away. An ambulance arrived within four minutes and the church began to pray.
I was surrounded by nurses, firemen and an EMT trainer who was on the phone with the hospital. There was a guy giving me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After several unsuccessful shocks with the defibrillator, my wife was told, “He's gone." The guy giving me mouth-to-mouth told the EMTs "I'm a doctor - Go up on the charge and shock him again." Because a doctor was now giving orders they could do more. They got my heart back in rhythm and transported me to the hospital, still unconscious but alive.
By the time we arrived, nurses were praying and my cardiologist began treatment. Doctors determined that my cardiac ejection fraction was only about 15-20%. Normal EF is 55-70%. I was feeling depressed about all that had happened and the prognosis for any real recovery when a guy walked into my room and just stood, saying nothing. Finally, I said, "Hi, how are you?" I thought he was going to cry when he said, "I'm Dr. Blankenship. I got to help save your life at church. I just wanted to tell you that yours wasn't the only dead heart that morning. I was visiting the church because of all the things going wrong in my life. God met me there when your heart stopped!" At that moment God said, in an almost audible voice to me, "This is not about you."
When the worst things happen in our lives, God is there beside us. He knows what we will need in the future, and He's got everything ready. I pray when your moments come, you will be comforted in knowing that He is already there ahead of you, preparing everything you need. Because it's about Him and His glory.
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