When God Said Live---And Live I Did

It’s a time I will never live to forget, yet live I will. Only by the sheer grace of God - the time of when God said live. Let me explain.

In the fall driving of 2010, I was driving home. Two streets away from pulling in the drive, kicking off my shoes and calling it a night, I found myself on the way to shock trauma where doctors were fighting to save my life.

It had been a horrific accident. So horrific my car flipped several times before landing right side up. I can remember climbing out of the passenger side window before collapsing on the side of the road in severe pain. Too much pain to move.

By the grace of God, one of our neighbors went for a drive around the neighborhood. It was 10pm.  He found me on the side of the road.  I don’t recall him finding me; however, as I was unconscious.  Minutes later, I was at the local ER. They sent me to Shock Trauma as I had so much internal bleeding. They didn’t feel equipped to save me. I didn’t realize until then all ER’s are not the same. There are ER’s and there are trauma centers for more life-threatening cases requiring a team of physicians. That would be my case.

I recall asking the doctors at shock trauma, “Am I going to make it?” and hearing. “We don’t know”. I had many injuries and internal bleeding.  Hematoma, pneumothorax, six broken ribs, a spliced spleen and a severely damaged liver to name a few.

Yet, the liver was my main problem. The doctors told my husband the accident was as if someone took my liver and lifted it up and then threw it on the ground because there were so many splices in it. They would need to do an extensive laser surgery to splice by splice, but my liver back together. Docs also said I would need to be completely still the entire time

As they wheeled me into surgery, with What A Beautiful Word resounding in the background, I was holding onto hope and too this day, this song takes me back.

After the liver surgery, infection took hold of my liver. Doctors told my husband I was not going to make it unless they put a drain on my liver. They said it was a risky procedure which would require me to remain there for several months more with no guarantee it would work. At this point, I had already been there, 2 and a half weeks – of which I remember very little - as I was on so many pain meds. My family was devastated, scared, and desperate for me to be ok.

Then, the day prior to my liver drain surgery, my husband had called his workplace to share an update when his colleague said to him “Pray Ezekiel 16.6 over her” which reads, “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live!” She told him it worked for her nephew.

My husband, already at the hospital with a roomful of visitors including our pastor and children , then formed a circle around me while our pastor read Ezekiel 16:6 and everyone prayed.  I vaguely remember them circled around my hospital bed thinking how much I wished I could take their fear and pain away. 

As I was being prepped for surgery the next morning, the trauma doctors arrived saying “It’s inexplicable. Nothing short of a miracle. The infection is gone”. She will make it.”  She will make it. 

This is why I say my miracle story is the day God said live and I did. I plan to continue to do so until he calls me home!