bruceolee 10:48 AM 02-25-2022
I had just had gallbladder surgery when this happened. Instead of a laparoscopic surgery they had to open me up to remove my gallbladder. So i woke up with a 14in scar and in horrifying pain which they couldn't control. I was told i'd be home in a week. So after a week and on the day i was to be discharged i started passing gas (sorry for this detail) that would knock the wings off a fly. They took my morning labs and we waited. Two doctors came in to explain to me that i was losing blood at a rapid rate so i couldn't go home and would have to be transferred to the ICU at jackson memorial hospital in Miami. I actually argued with them to just let me go home and if it got worse i promised i would return. I'm glad they didn't even listen to me. So, i was taken by ambulance next door to the hospital. It was there in the ICU that i went to the bathroom and we found blood. my HGB was 4.6 and to keep in mind the average HGB is 12 -17 so i was down a few pints. I had to have constant transfusions while they tried to find the bleed. My family could tell you i was getting so much blood my skin changed color. I "looked cuban" according to all my nurses.
So, after not finding the bleed i was presented with a surgery that was so rare that it had not been done since the mid-eighties. I was told only 10 doctors could do it and only 2 of them WOULD actually do it and one happened to work for the hospital the chief of surgery. I was told i had a 40% chance of living through the surgery. So, i spoke with my family and we decided to do a round of labs one more time and if my bleeding hadn't stopped and gotten better we would go ahead and they were prepping the OR while this was happening it was that critical. We prayed like we have never prayed in our lives and by Gods mercy my labs actually got better. not by a lot but enough to delay it. I was told if my labs fell even once then that was it. So, for 3 days in the ICU in miami i lived and died on those lab numbers. after 3 days i was transferred out of the ICU to room. I don't think i've ever slept so hard since getting out of that ICU as i did then. So, by faith alone my family had nothing to cling to other than the rock of Jesus Christ in those days and God delivered me out of that hospital I'm sure of it. I've been told i will bleed again, it was just a matter of time and i was to get back to Miami ASAP. well, that was 2005 and I haven't bled since that time. I'm now anemic so i don't carry a lot of blood but i have enough to live on and that's all one needs. I'm sure we all have stories of the times we almost died and i'd love to hear about yours if you feel comfortable sharing. God bless you all and thank you for tolerating me and these stories!
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Havanaaddict 03:30 PM 02-25-2022
At 19 years old I was in a car accident. Coming around a long bend and lost control struck a concrete light post and snapped it in half and it was balancing on top of my car. Friends were in a another car ahead of me and did not see me come out of the area so they circled back and had to go all the way around and come back. When they found me, I was under the back of the car looking at the gas tank. I struck the Pole so hard I bent the door down about a foot as I flew out of the car landed on the ground the car swung around and bounced on my chest and pinned my legs and me under the car. At the time I weighed over 300 pounds so there was a lot of force. I pulled the steering column up toward the side door I was hanging on so tight. When my friends found me I remember one saying oh my God. I must have looked pretty bad with half my body sticking out from behind the car. I remember thinking I was going to die and the car would explode I reached out and I undid the gas tank cap thinking that would help relieve the pressure if there was any. I was also worried I was going to jail as I had a pound of weed in my trunk. So I told my friends to get it out and move it. I also told him I needed to get out from underneath the car. One of my friends that was like 120 pounds soaking wet, but I remember him lifting the back of the car as another friend pulled me out. When I got to the hospital they came into the room and told me that I had possibly punctured the main artery to my heart and I was going to die And then they just walked out of the room. They came back in a few minutes and said they would need to run a test which was inserting a long metal rod glowing red from my crotch to my heart that was done without any pain medication and being a big boy I reached up and grabbed the attendee by his collar yanked him to my face and told him to take it out now. Well the good news they said if you didn’t Puncture the main artery to your heart. But we were going to need to do x-rays and we can’t give you any pain medication so many many x-rays were taken as they roll me back-and-forth with no pain meds. Outcome broken back T1 T7 that is from your neck down about 10 inches. But what blew their minds was they watched my spin go from curved out of place to straight back up in a section of x-rays. That is when I know that the Lord I had put behind me was alive and well and working miracles again in my life. They said I would need surgery or I could just Lay in bed and hope that in months time the vertebrae would grow back together. I chose surgery and good thing I did as the vertebrae was way out of pocket and they needed rods to hold it in place. The surgery went well I was in a body cast from my head to my waist (6 months) but was still paralyzed from the waist down. There was a male nurse who would not give up, he would come in at night and help me stand up and walk me like Frankenstein down the hall back-and-forth never bending my legs though. After I left the hospital I had a hospital bed at home and a 13 inch black-and-white TV at the foot of the bed. My mom was a school teacher and had to go to work. So she would turn it on before she left and I would watch the same station till she got back home at four or 5 o’clock. I started back to church with my friends who had now all became Christians because of what they saw me go through. We started back at small little white church where they believed strongly in laying hands. They watched me come in one week in a wheelchair and then next week coming back on a walker and then shortly walking with a cane. So that’s one of my brushs with death. Again it shows you God used me and my accident to bring eight of my friends to the Lord. One of them is even a minister and started his own church in a small bad area and is still going strong today. I am one of the very few at the time had ever survive this type of break and was not paralyzed.
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bruceolee 04:16 PM 02-25-2022
Great story! You are a blessed man for sure! They were checking my heart in one of my tests and they offered to put me out or let me stay awake and watch the procedure so naturally i chose to stay awake. Boy did they regret that!
"what's that?!"
"is that my heart!?"
they couldn't shut me up but thankfully they took all with a grain of salt. your story is amazing though. I'm so glad The Lord saved you through that! God works is wondrous ways! God bless you brother!
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Havanaaddict 07:20 PM 02-25-2022
I have plenty of near death experiences "One involving LSD and playing on cliffs in Yosemite"
Sounds Like if we were cats we would be on a last of 9 lives
:-)
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longknocker 07:51 PM 02-25-2022
Great Stories!
:-):-). Supposedly I Had A Heart Attack When I Was In The Hospital In 2010 For Colon Cancer. I Never Felt Any Symptoms, But, According To My Cardiologist, I Had One. God Is So Good!
:-):-)
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bruceolee 08:05 PM 02-25-2022
Originally Posted by longknocker:
Great Stories!:-):-). Supposedly I Had A Heart Attack When I Was In The Hospital In 2010 For Colon Cancer. I Never Felt Any Symptoms, But, According To My Cardiologist, I Had One. God Is So Good!:-):-)
God protects us even when we aren't aware of it for sure. God bless you and glad you're still with us!
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