Shrapnel, Life-Support, and the Transcending Power of Love

I spent today in Orem promoting my children's book. I met the most fascinating man who told me about experiences he had in Iraq while working for a contracted security company. He told me about a miracle that happened with a co-worker.

This coworker was on a video conference with his wife, when a mortar exploded outside the brick wall where this man was sitting. The wife experienced the horror of witnessing the explosion and seeing shrapnel come through the back of her husband's head and out his forehead. Medics rushed in to assist him. He was still alive, but brain dead. This man's wife and mother were flown by the contractor over to Iraq to decide if they would turn off his live support.

He had been brain dead for a few days. When his family arrived, the wife sat next to him, took his hand, and started speaking to him. Immediately, the monitors picked up brain activity.

I had been talking in Costco with this man about how amazing our sub-conscious mind is. He told me this story to illustrate that even when brain dead, the mind appears to maintain some intelligence. The brain activity they witnessed caused them to abandon any thought of turning off life support. Today he is alive and mobile. He has control of all his faculties. He has some memory issues, and it is obvious he is slower cognitively than he used to be, but he is a loving, functioning father and husband.

The security contractor that employed him paid off all of his bills, and paid down his mortgage so that he could support his family on his disability insurance. I'm not going to identify the security company. It is one familiar to many. They received a lot of bad press. I'm not naming them because I don't personally know the man who survived the shrapnel and feel I shouldn't identify him by stating the company he worked for.

Hearing this story left me in awe of the goodness of God, whose power enabled that injured man to miraculously respond to his wife, and the miracle of the goodness of people and corporations who do the right thing and the right time.

Life is full of miracles. We just need to look for them. :)