My name is David Smith, as I prayed about what to write, God let me know that the testimony of my past six years, when my journey began is what needs to be told . I left this world Oct. 1st '94 and returned Oct. 28th '94. While my body was being sustained by life support, my spirit went on a journey. After all this time, I still don't have the words that clearly relay all that happened. Only the Holy Spirit from God in heaven can bear witness.
Let's start in '94. I had been sick for a year. I was 37, a single parent. My estranged first wife passed away in '91 with cancer, but glory be to God, she planted a lot of seeds before she went home. Then I had a couple of strange years, nothing seemed fulfilling, but I knew I had to keep my stability for my 12 year old son and myself. Then in Feb. '94, I quit running, and having always known in my heart that God had no place for hypocrites, I surrenderd my life to Him. As God let me know that my life had been planned, and that his hand had always been in my life. Soon, I got scared and hard-headed. I had been sick all that year, lung infections, sinus infections, paraorbittal infections, just one thing after another. Then on Saturday Oct. 1st, I was taken to the emergency room. I had been told previously that week that I had a slight case of pneumonia. In the E.R. I lost conscienceness. Now as far as my body was concerned, I was fully comatose, and eventually placed on life support and transported to Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, N.C. Their diagnosis was that I had ensephillitis of the brain and spinal menengitis combined. In an adult this equals a fatality rate of 170%.
The fifth day on life support the doctors ask my family to make the decision to remove me from life support. They said they had ran more test, and that it would take a miracle for me to regain conscienceness, and if I did I would be a vegetable for the rest of my life, because of all the lessions in my brain. Then the doctors came back to my room to check on the life support stats, as they were checking, they said I opened my eyes, put a smile on my face, and set upright! Thank You Jesus!
Well for the next 5 days, I'm still not in this world, and the doctors tell my family "We have to keep him restrained and fed intraveniously. The lessions have dried and left scar tissue throughout his brain"
They said that nothing could be done, and that their never would be any improvements, and that I would never realize I was a live, let along anything else. Glory be to God, the next day Oct. 28th. I awoke back in this world, and the scar tissue throughout my brain had disappeared. All I did was cry, I still couldn't walk or talk, this was on Friday. That afternoon they roled me to various therapist for some preliminary evaluations.
Sunday my doctor came by, he was a professor of neurology, and a brother in Christ. He said,"If you understand, you have a meeting with all of the therapist in the morning and they're going to have a conference on your diagnosis". And that he was sorry he couldn't be there. I said, "OK" . He said," You can talk!" I said," Yeah, I can walk some too." ZOOM, he was gone.
Well the next morning, Chaplin McLrey, (A young chaplin whom God had brought us together) Came in pushing a wheelchair.
I asked him "why the wheelchair? I can walk that far." He said,"Just jump in and let's go" I did, and as soon as we rolled in the conference room,my doctor walked in, put his hand over my mouth, walked to the front of the room where the therapist were seated. He told them that he had only a minute, But that he had come by just to tell them some things. Then he removed his glasses, as tears came down his cheeks. He proceeded in telling them that no one at the hospital should take any credit for my recovery, and if anyone didn't believe in miracles to come and shake my hand, because that is what I was, a miracle from God, but that the miracle was still at work, so they should be prepared! He then wiped his eyes, replaced his glasses, came by gave me a pat on the shoulder and left. I looked around the room and everyone was staring at me. I said to the speech therapist," I wanted to tell you friday, but my mouth wouldn't work, that soon you wouldn't be able to keep up with my babbling mouth." She began to cry. I walked over to hug her and try to comfort her. When I did, the physical therapist began to cry also, and as far as myself, I cried almost constantly for the next few months. By the way, coming into the meeting all the therapist had evaluated to work with me for a few weeks and then re-evaluate to see if there was any hope in recovering any of my motor functions. Recovery!- I was home in 10 days. GLORY GLORY GLORY be to God!
Now that covered the simple part of those 28 days. My body was there but my spirit went on a journey that words could never do justice. Like the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians (speaking of himself) "I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago such a one caught up to the third heaven". I knew my journey was not in body, because my body was under 24/7 supervision. A journey which brings tears to me every day. I still cannot share it completely with the pharisees of today, because It goes against their theology, or doctrine, or somehow contradicts their scare tactics of trying to explain spirituality, with carnal solutions. Jesus said ,"Know the truth and the truth will make you free." We aren't the dictators of the free hand of God. God never contradicts Himself, for He is not the author of confussion. As I write this I pray ; God let those who have ears hear.
Sometimes I'll either get ahead of myself, or be repeatative, so I pray that I will always keep putting everything in God's hands. As Paul would say " Bear with me". Yes, those 28 days changed every breath I take or ever will. Before I start, God let me know to tell you to open your heart to Him as you read, and He will indeed bear witness.
When I awoke that friday, the 28th day, I thought I had dosed off and had just been put in a room. I raised the bed and there was a mirror in front of me. when I looked in it I began to scream. I looked like death. I'd lost so much weight, 105 lbs. and I'm 6'1". I don't want to get to deep about the physical aspects, that truly is unimportant in the big picture.
I started crying and continued crying for months. I couldn't tell anyone about my journey
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