Saturday, June 4, 2011

Breathe ...

... a simple task using God’s perfectly designed respiratory system, unless some traumatic event interrupts the process – like being submerged in a murky lake for nearly four minutes.

My husband was busying himself on our boat dock when he noticed a commotion on the row of boat slips facing ours and about 50’ away. He heard the grandmother call, “Found him!” The grandparents then began administering CPR while begging the lifeless body of their little grandson to breathe.

Bud’s twenty years of experience on the Fire Department prepared him for “such a time as this.” He ran to the child, a 15-month-old boy (I’ll call him Matt), and calmly said, “Let me do this.” Matt had already turned blue. Bud adjusted the tilt in the baby’s neck and head and began, what seemed to him, a couple of minutes of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while his grandmother performed chest compressions. The child responded with a couple of vocal sounds, then with crying. They rolled him on his side and began to pat and massage him. Matt coughed up some lake water. The grandfather wept. The other family members consoled the baby’s mother. Then they prayed over Matt, thanking God for returning him to his family.

The call to 911 had already been placed and arrangements made to meet the ambulance at the entrance of our addition. The two men gathered Matt into our golf cart and began a painfully slow climb up a dirt trail to meet the EMTs. The little one was awake, but lethargic and trying to sleep. The grandfather put Matt across his knees and firmly patted his back. Matt’s resistant cries gave his lungs the force they needed to rid him of even more lake water.

The volunteer fire department arrived a few minutes ahead of the ambulance with the necessary oxygen and emergency treatment. “Matt” was transported to a nearby hospital and, later that afternoon, we received word that he would make a full recovery. The next day, a grateful grandfather came to say, “Thank you” to a humble servant who said he was only part of a team and just happened to be where God needed him. That’s the kind of reaction one would expect from my hero of a husband.

Matt’s story reminds us that God is still in the business of miracles. The first one was his being located well below the surface in a lake with near-zero visibility. The second was life itself winning a struggle against all odds. The third, Matt’s being given a clean bill of health.



“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Lord.
Sunny

Yvonne Blake said...

Oh wow! That's scary!

dandelionfleur said...

I've always love the phrase: for such a time as this. And wow, doesn't it relate to what happened perfectly?

Thanks for sharing this spiritually uplifting story. And it sounds like that husband of yours is an absolute keeper:).

Rita Garcia said...

Praising God for miracles! Praising Him for His love! Thanks for sharing and blessing my day!

Thanks for visiting my blog--your comments were both encouraging and uplifting! I appreciate you!

Patty Wysong said...

Oh Nancy. For such a time as this, for sure. God's timing. Wow.

So thankful!!
Hugs!!

Shelley Ledfors said...

Wow. So thankful the Lord had your husband there at the right time and place and that the little one is okay. Great post--thanks.

Nancy K. Sullivan said...

This event came on the heels of killer tornadoes that swept through Joplin, then Oklahoma and across our nation over the past few weeks. This one tiny spot on the map was only one of hundreds of miracles that must have occurred among the tragedies - it just happened to be in our tiny corner. Regardless of the players, only God gets the glory :)

Thanks for sharing your comments, ladies. God Bless.