The fire department began searching for us, but unfortunately it was on the mountain several miles below. Eventually, an anonymous lady only known as "Mountain 4" began hailing the fire department on her CB radio. The fire department and "Mountain 4" eventually met up with each other, and I was transported to the hospital.
Peace with God
Later that evening as I was being wheeled to the operating room, Dr. Su, the surgeon on duty somberly advised me of my chances of survival. Dr. Su told me, "I don't think I can save you young man! You had better make your peace with God!"
I went into emergency surgery that evening without much hope for survival. I can not adequately describe what it felt like not having any time to say goodbye to family or friends. I had only enough time to say a quick prayer for mercy before slipping into an anesthetically induced unconsciousness.
My liver had been lacerated, my spleen and bladder had been ruptured and my pelvis had been shattered. The skin on my knees and the palm of my left hand had been ground completely away as the result of being grated into the rough asphalt.
Miraculously I survived, and was flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center as a result of suffering a closed head injury. As I was being taken out to the transport helicopter, I had just enough time to see all of my friends and family who had gathered in the waiting room.
The flight for life team told me, “Wave goodbye, because this might be the last time you see them!”
Later as neurosurgeons were evacuating the subdural hematoma on the left side of my head they found an old head injury caused by a fight I had been in on my 22nd birthday. They evacuated it as well.
After five days in a coma I spent three months at Loma Linda, and I had to undergo three more surgeries. I presently endure paralysis of the right side of my diaphragm, a permanent limp and chronic pain as a result of this accident. I was a seasonal fire fighter with the U.S. Forest Service, and would have to give up my aspirations of working for them year round.
As I was being released, I was warned not to drink again.
Barely able to walk I celebrated my release from the hospital later that evening by cracking open a couple of Rainier Ale's with some friends who lived down the street.
I fell in and out of trouble as a result of alcohol and substance abuse for the next three years. I was a low life. Certainly, I was somebody not worth the price of saving.
Wasting My Life
After narrowly escaping a couple of drug related convictions I realized that I had been thrown more than my share of lifelines. I slowly began to admit my life was beyond my own recovery. As I reflected on my life, I began to come to terms with the shame of wasting God's purpose for my life.
So as I lay in bed one evening I began to pray for God's mercy.
I can honestly testify that God reached down that evening, took firm hold of me and shook me from my slumber. I found myself looking down at a poor, pathetic lonely old man on the brink of death with nothing to hope for. I was in fact looking down at myself. As I tried to blink away the disbelief of this moment it also became apparent that this was the way other people currently saw me.
The Pain of Emptiness
I began attending Alcoholics Anonymous, and as time passed, I received my 30 day sobriety pin. But even though I should have been proud, I still had an emptiness in my heart that longed to be filled. For ten years I had attempted to fill it with drugs and alcohol; but now the pain of that emptiness was free to burn away.
