What happened?
Many of you have not heard the full story of what happened to John. I am going to try my best to describe the story accurately. September 23rd, 2015 John was working on a tv antenna tower with his brother Joel. They were replacing a section of tower and this particular job requires two people. John climbed up the tower and hooked onto the tower with his harness he was wearing for safety precautions. Joel was on the ground on a phone call with another employee. Joel heard a humming/buzzing sound and glanced over his shoulder to catch the end of John being electrocuted. It only lasted a brief moment. John fell back away from the electrical wires. Joel started yelling at which point the customer came out of his house. Joel called 911 and the customer climbed the tower to try to lift Johns head. Joel reached 911 and dispatch said someone would be on their way. Joel then climbed the tower to help the customer hold John up. John was moaning and groaning but was never conscious. The entire time John was moving his arms, so Joel had to hold him against the tower to keep him from coming in contact with the power lines again. When the EMT's and police arrived they were unsure of how to help get John down because they are not normally trained in tower rescues. The entire process of getting John down took a total of 30-45 minutes. Had Joel not been there John wouldn't have survived.
Once John was down he was taken by ambulance to a nearby field and airlifted to South Bend. At South Bend John had a CT scan to check his head for any brain damage. The tests came back and John was completely fine in that area. The Dr's were unsure of any of Johns vital organs at that time and could give me no guarantees. I was able to see John in South Bend before they airlifted him to Ft. Wayne. He woke up for a very short period of time and he looked very scared and confused. He was intubated and was trying to fight off the nurses, myself, and his father. They ended up having to sedate him for his own safety. At that time I was able to see the outward injuries to John. He had burns on his face, neck, right elbow, and extensive burns to both feet. They then airlifted John to Ft Wayne.
Once John made it to Ft Wayne I received a phone call from the helicopter team that John had made it safely and was still in stable condition. I had another hour and a half before I reached the hospital. When we reached the hospital I was a little frantic to say the least. A very nice security guard let us in and brought us to the waiting room where I would spend the next week and a half waiting for John to wake up. They finally let us back to see him and it was the scariest thing I have ever seen. My husband was intubated and not moving at all. I had never felt so alone. The nurses told us it would be several days before they knew the extent of his injuries. Basically when the body suffers this severe of an injury everything shuts down except what keeps you alive. In the next several days the rest of Johns vital organs would either start working or not. (Thank God everything did.)
That is the whole story as best as I can describe. Obviously I cannot get every single detail in because I would be typing all night. Needless to say John is a miracle and we serve a wonderful God!
We are home now and on the mend. We are looking forward to what God has in store in this next phase in our lives.
