Doctor has Near-Death Experience that transforms his life

Well it was a scary day, in fact we had just returned from a vacation my family took together and they had been robbed, so we were settling with the insurance company about this robbery that happened while we were away and I was normally working at a restaurant in the afternoon and that night was my night off, so I went out with friends, but my dad was out of town on business and had flown to San Francisco for that, when he left he told me: take care of your mom and your brothers, jump and us. I'll get to those smoke detectors as soon as I get back.

We had tried to install some smoke detectors the night before and didn't have the right batteries for them, so it was quite ironic that I returned home after visiting friends that night. I handed myself the glass of milk as I normally would and then woke up an hour later to intense heat and a bright orange flickering light. It was incredibly traumatic. You were so heroic that you pulled your two brothers out of the window and saved their lives. You tried to go save your mother. and your little brother couldn't make it through the fire and you were hailed as a hero for all of that, but you didn't feel that at all, did you?

No, I'm not sure most heroes felt it at the time, it just was that way I think. Part of my genetic makeup has always been to go to the heart of danger and as soon as I woke up I reflexively knew that I had to get everyone out and unfortunately my mom and brother were on the opposite side of the house so my brothers wanted share a bedroom. With me, Tim woke up immediately and Dan and Packy in the next room were also woken up by my screaming and we were climbing out of their windows so I felt confident that they would make it out, but you're trying to get to the other side. of the house I lost oxygen and broke the window with a punch, which prevented me from escaping that way, so I turned towards the stairs and fell halfway down the stairs, but instead of going back up and out, I took the critically vital decision.

Getting out as quickly as possible was to go to the front door, but the heat-heated front door prevented me from opening it only because the metal had swollen and then I went down as far as I could and got to the back of the house where the firefighters found by closing the door, in reality, of course, you couldn't escape a tragedy like that unscathed and you came out of that horrible event with about 60 to 70 percent of your body burned with a 20 percent chance of survival, did you? Can you tell us about the brutal days following the fire and your recovery?

Well, from the moment I regained consciousness on the way to the hospital in the ambulance, I could hear and knew something terrible was happening. It was in an incredible amount. in pain and I was worried for my mother and my brother who had not been able to leave the house, but I honestly prayed that God would take my

life

. I was in so much pain and so afraid and I was overwhelmed by reality and I just kept saying please Jesus take me in your arms please take me I was a firm believer having been raised in a Christian and Catholic family but I was imagining that I couldn't take one more second. of this pain and that one more second would pass and I kept praying for God to end this in any way possible and I was so afraid that my parents, my mother and my brother had made it out and then what would my father hear?

He is in San Francisco and they were presented with an overwhelming set of realities. It fell on me at one point you are 16 years old you face multiple surgeries after that in fact in one of your surgeries you regain consciousness but you can't move alone it was a horrible

experience

but something spiritual also happened you actually died Yes I told myself About that, well, I was on the table for the first surgery of many, but the

doctor

s had waited until I was physiologically stable enough to tolerate blood loss and the things that happened during surgery and when the anesthesiologist put me on. sleep and I said count backwards from 100, I did it and then I heard the

doctor

s talking and then I could feel pain in my stomach in my arms and someone lifted my arm off the table and let it fall to the side and blood was dripping from my arm.

I realized I was awake and they had started the surgery and wait a minute I'm not supposed to feel anything the only thing I had been waiting for 10 days was that they would put you to sleep and I wouldn't have to feel the pain and that was the first opportunity to have pain relief, so I was very aware that I was not asleep and was feeling every little detail of the surgery. The doctors were also worried and said he was losing large amounts of blood, let's wait and find out what's going on. going on here and that was an overwhelming fear of not being able to move a muscle and communicate to you that I'm feeling this because I was under medically induced paralysis so the drugs were preventing me from even blinking and I'm starting to say guys I'm feeling everything you are doing and I could feel just scraping my abdomen and my flanks and the blood dripping off the table and praying, dear Jesus, please take me, take me, take me, take me. me and then all of a sudden I wasn't in pain anymore, like I was floating above my body, I would be in a position like, you know, a lazy guy reclining with my knees partially bent, my arms resting at my sides and I'm like floating and I could feel this soft, warm light coming on me and it was like lying on the beach with your eyes closed, you can feel the warmth and the softness and you can see the light through your eyelids, but it was very bright. and very warm and a feeling of love and forgiveness and tolerance and euphoria just total euphoria and I'm, oh my God, I literally said and there I am feeling this incredible presence of love and I felt my mother, my brother and a grandfather whom During For years I hadn't thought about who died when I was one and I just felt this total sense of peace that everything was exactly as it should be, everything has always been as it should be, it is and always will be, it's a perfectly orchestrated plan of gods and I started laughing to myself, so happy and elated, not about one thing in particular, but sure that God is with me and my prayers are being answered, but then I had a sudden awareness that I still couldn't see this kindness in my mind. . leaning towards the brightness and the light and the warmth and I was floating towards that direction but also knowing that somewhere there is another side that I will not return from yet but it is not my time, it was not a decision that I made or that God made It was like If there was a board meeting and it was understood that it was not yet my time to be with God, even though I was with him, there was going to be some pain and a lot of surgeries to recover from.

He had that knowledge that soon the injury that this was going to be a huge recovery despite the power of that spiritual

experience

mark the recovery out of that surgery you know it involved a fair amount of discouragement and depression along the way that he faced multiple surgeries. from then tell us a little bit about your recovery after that surgery, which you know, I'm sure you know it was indescribable pain and discomfort, so even when I woke up I knew that they had opened my abdomen and I could feel these tight what they called retention sutures because I was so swollen and So much fluid on top of so much fluid overload that they couldn't even close my abdomen with regular sutures, then they used these big retention sutures and again I felt this incredible pain, it was a new pain in my abdomen , abdomen and stomach that he had.

I didn't feel it before, but I had that certain awareness that it was supposed to be like this: just go with the flow, travel on this journey and trust your God, but still I was afraid and I have often said that after having seen the bush fiery, so to speak, you would. "I think all my decisions would be so easy, haven't we all said that? Boy, if God told me to make sure that little doubt I have could be erased,

life

would be a different story, well, I did." I didn't wake up that way I didn't wake up with that certainty that it was still that little part of me that wasn't sure or the question of why this was happening to me and why I had to lose my mom and my brother so yeah, mark I felt. that I had a partner in my recovery, but it wasn't necessarily a completely synchronized relationship and there was some contention and some anger.

I'm sure you know years later I realized it was anger but I felt abandoned at the time now my mom was gone and my poor dad was so heartbroken from the pain he must be suffering having lost a child and a wife and eldest son is in critical condition, so I thought recovery was possible maybe at that time, but I didn't know how. I was going to find the strength to do what had to be done and you know, I think in your case a 16 year old boy just lost his mother and his brother going through this incredible trauma, all these surgeries, a course II struggle is completely understandable but you had this amazing doctor doctor frat who came and really helps you in one of your darkest moments tell me about him he is a spiritual warrior.

I always called him a general surgeon, who was the director of the burn unit not by choice but in his youth. He was a trauma surgeon and the burn unit was not being attended to enough and somehow he found himself in that line of medicine and then became a master in it, but not only because he was scientifically brilliant and a good doctor who graduated from a great Faculty of Medicine. Case Western Reserve University, but because he had the heart of a giant, so much love and compassion that he was someone anyone could easily identify with a strong charismatic personality and a firm believer, he would go to service or church on Sundays if it was in the hospital , which was most of Sunday, but he had a strong faith that I could see and was aware that there was something special about this guy and what he told you that changed your perspective on many things over the years, but from the beginning I remember him talking about the old analogy of a half-full or half-empty milk bottle, depending on your perspective, which was a completely new idea or concept to me, but little by little I began to understand that, well, this It's what we're working with. this is the asset pile here is the deficit pile let's keep these this is not going to do us any good let's go from here and take as much positive as we can and that was a total way of thinking that he inspired in me and still does, yes, it sounds like dr.

The fraternity had such a, I mean, obviously, he was a big part of his physical recovery, but also his spiritual and emotional recovery. You need to tell us a little bit about what Dr. The fraternity inspired you to do because you became a physical therapist and then something in life promised you to go back to medical school and become a reconstructive surgeon. Tell us how dr. The fraternity's influence on his life has impacted his desire to see healthy people doing well. He personally develops relationships with many of his patients and I think his doctor likes to do that too, but he has something unique, something special that is very charismatic, but even in difficult situations. times he was able to encourage me and inspire me and make me find that little bit of extra strength that I could have and I think it was just his personal attachment to his goals in life and his purpose, it was very solid and you know the strength that I like to think that my Heavenly Father gave me was increased by his breath.

One of the things I love about your stories is that you became a reconstructive surgeon, you are helping people and many of the same painful situations that you find yourself in, you have actually worked on. Dr. fellowship in the same burn unit that you are in, where only God can write a story that is incredible, but I am thinking about the people who are watching this interview right now who are going through their own medical challenges and you you find them every day. and they're like where are you in that moment of desperation and struggle with God and why did this happen to me and you know all the questions you had: would you tell someone in that moment one of the things that I tell my kids? and anyone who asks specifically I mean what gets me out of my own pain and my own struggle and my own pessimism about life in general and that is if I can find someone else that I can turn to and offer some kind of help to another person. who is in a similar situation and it has always been the most rewarding part of medicine for me to share my experience and my barometer with patients many times is when they ask me how I got my scars.

I know you are moving forward from your own pain. and they are aware again of everyone around us, so I discovered early on that if I could help others by sharing my experience or something like other patients had done with me, of course it would be a very positive experience. The rewarding thing was, you know, being self-motivated, you're such an inspiration, yeah, I mean, obviously you're dealing with your patients and the people you come into contact with. Mark,You have credibility because you've been there, you've been in their shoes. and thank you so much for sharing your story and inspiring our viewers and inspiring Cheryl and me on our journey of faith.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing and continuing blessings on your work in the medical field and hey, if you're the one looking good. Now maybe you're in a medical situation and you say, I need a frat doctor in my life. I need someone to come and encourage me and pray for me right from the hospital. You can call our prayer lines. We would love to do it. Pray with you and I encourage you, that number is 186 six two seven three four four four four, whatever you face, you don't have to do it alone, we'll be right back.