Raised from the dead: A miracle of God

Welcome to the Abundant Life Podcast, bringing.

You encouragement and challenging believers to spiritual.

Change and growth by applying biblical principles to everyday life.

And now your hosts, Sasso Mendez and Ben Arellano.

Welcome, everybody, to the Abundant Life Podcast.

This is episode number 79.

I'm here with my good friend in Faithless Sermon in the Faith, Sasso Mendez.

Hey, Ben.

What's going on?

What's up, brother?

You had a birthday here a little bit in 79.

Oh, man.

I'm not 79.

It was 19.

You looked pretty good.

79.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Oil valet you've been wearing every night before bed.

What's the one that my wife wears?

Cerave.

Cerave.

Cerave.

I don't know.

I don't know.

One of those.

I haven't heard of that one.

Yeah.

Anyway, so today we have two extra special guests with us.

I'm so excited about this episode.

We've.

We've.

We've been trying to get them on the podcast for.

For quite some time, and the Lord just has not worked it out, but he.

In God's providence, he worked it out today.

It's just the perfect day.

And we're going to talk more about that here in just a little bit.

But I quickly just want to introduce Zach and Brooke.

Welcome to the show, guys.

Thank you.

Welcome.

So this is taco talk.

So we're going to.

We're going to jump into some food here.

Sasso, I know you.

You had some good grub last night, bro.

So give us the.

The deets.

Well, if you don't know, this is Arizona restaurant week.

And so my wife and I went to Dodo Bird, and the service wasn't spectacular, but the food was really good.

The hamburger was amazing.

I haven't had a hamburger in a couple weeks, so French fries as well.

And then they had a butter cake.

That was pretty phenomenal.

And then I sprung for the shrimp.

So Rebecca got the steak, I got the hamburger, and then we kind of split it.

Okay.

From there.

And so we shared.

But we didn't share our butter cake.

We each had our own.

Was that a.

Was that a smash burger?

I'm not sure what it was.

It got smashed in my mouth, but I don't.

I don't know.

I don't know what it was.

Smash burger, but it was really good.

Sweet.

It t. I hate to say this, but it tasted like a delicious quarter pounder from McDonald's.

And I mean, I'm not big on McDonald's, but it was pretty phenomenal.

Yeah, well, after not having It.

For quite some time.

Yeah, that.

That's partially that.

That, too.

Yeah.

Been trying to.

And they had this cauliflower.

Buffalo wild, you know, like buffalo wing.

Cauliflower.

Yeah.

I didn't want it.

And so Rebecca got it, and I got dumplings.

I thought it was something else.

I'm not big on dumplings.

And I was disappointed with them, but she got the cauliflower.

Buffalo, like the.

It's like a wing.

And it was pretty phenomenal.

Oh, my goodness.

It did not taste like a cauliflower.

It tasted like a wing.

And it had buffalo sauce, and.

Yeah, it had some blue cheese on there.

And I mean.

Wow.

Yeah, there was a. I mean, you sit really tight with people, so, I mean, you literally.

You could touch the couples next to you.

And we told the guy because he's trying to decipher what he wants, and we get the buff.

Get the.

He's like.

He's like me, right?

Cauliflower.

All right.

Get it.

And he goes, well, if it's not good, I'm gonna blame you.

And I said, well, if it's not good, we're done.

And I don't care who you tell, because I won't.

We won't be here.

Well, this is the same guy that said.

So there's a.

There's a.

There's a vegan place down the street here called the Loving Hut.

And Sasso says there's nothing loving about that.

Yeah, there's nothing loving about vegan food.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

And so he had it, and he's like, yeah, this is.

We still stayed in.

This is pretty good.

Okay.

Okay.

So if we go there, I don't know that I would ever substitute for wings, because there's no substitution, you know?

Sure.

Like, almost meat.

Like, it's not meat, but it was pretty phenomenal.

Okay.

I wasn't.

Had the crunch.

Yeah.

I mean, it's fried.

Right.

So you can fry anything, and it's pretty.

I mean, you can fry my finger and not until I eat it, but, yeah, it was pretty phenomenal.

Yeah.

Chickens go extinct, man.

That's next best.

Yeah, Right, right, right.

I'm flowering it up for sure with fried and buffalo sauce.

Wow.

Okay.

Okay.

So I've been wanting to go there.

I mean, I think.

I think I sent you reels about it.

Oh, yeah.

And then on Monday and Tuesday, it's all.

You can eat steak for 20 bucks.

Steak and fries.

The steak wasn't, like, phenomenal.

It was good.

It just wasn't like.

Yeah, knock your socks off.

Steak 44 but for 20 bucks, I mean, yeah, I could probably have two steaks easy and then Wednesday, 50 cent wings.

You know there's a. I saw that.

50 Cent I haven't heard.

I've said 50 cent wings in a.

Hot minute since the pre biden Economics, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Not to be political here, but yeah.

You know, inflation, prior inflation.

So, so what do you guys, what do you guys like to.

To eat?

Like, is there a.

You know,.

I only have pretty much one thing that I love to eat in salads.

I will have all different kinds of salads.

Okay.

It doesn't necessarily have to be just the same exact one.

It'll be barbecue ranch, it'll be Thai, it'll be whatever with lettuce.

I'll eat it and it's great.

Yeah.

Okay.

Burger has lettuce.

Yes.

And you know what, when I go, when I go to In n out, I normally get the, the one that's protein style.

Protein style, yes.

I love that one.

Yeah, I do too.

But it's not by, I mean I'm forced to.

It's not my first option.

Yeah, I like it.

I think it tastes good.

Really consolidator over here for sure.

For me, I ate anything.

I just love food.

Yesterday I went to Cheesecake Factory, which happens to be her favorite restaurant.

Expensive menu there.

Yeah, it was a big bill, had a lot of people there.

We were celebrating her second life, right.

The one year anniversary and her 19 year old little sister's birthday.

So.

Okay, went there, got some chicken piccata.

Delicious and nutritious.

Okay.

Okay.

You know what capers are?

You ever hear of capers?

No, I have no idea.

Yeah, you know what capers are like little buds of a plant, right.

And they're, they almost taste like mini grapes, green olives.

And I remember being a really little kid at my buddy's cabin and his dad showed me these things in a fridge.

I'm like, I'm not gonna try those.

Those things are nasty, right?

He's like, you gotta try one, man.

So I try to ate the whole jar and I've been hooked on these.

Things and he still eats the whole jar.

I really do.

I'll get a whole jar and I'll sit there and I'll eat them.

So Got that yesterday.

So good.

Real good.

Awesome, awesome.

What'd you eat at Cheesecake Factory?

That's like a 25 page menu there.

Well, it is, it's like a novel.

It takes about an hour and a half to figure out what you want.

Yeah, exactly.

And by the time you're ready to order, you want two meals because you're that hungry, right?

So I did.

I got the chicken.

I didn't get the avocado egg rolls, which I normally do.

That sounds good.

We didn't get.

Oh, they were amazing.

And they have this plum sauce that's just.

Oh, it's just great.

Eat that with a spoon.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're good.

Avocado egg rolls.

Okay.

I don't go there a lot, but I have been there.

Their cheeseburger is pretty phenomenal.

Yeah.

Do you like cheeseburgers?

I do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wins.

And wings.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, if it were the same price as a steak.

I mean, the steak.

I would get the steak.

But, I mean, it's a.

The steak's cousin, you know, that's.

It's like the.

The not so pretty twin, but a twin that's in your category that you can date, you know, that's gonna give you the time of day that.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

She's willing to go with me.

The really pretty one.

I mean, she doesn't give me time of day, but her twin sister not, you know, has a crooked eye, but she likes you.

I can live with that.

You know, I'm good.

So.

Yeah, that's the.

That's the steak and burger.

So the burger is a crooked analogy.

Yeah.

Well, if my wife doesn't listen to this episode.

Yeah, for sure.

Just talking about burgers.

Yeah, exactly.

You're like, babe, you're the steak.

Yeah.

You're the steak.

You would.

I couldn't afford.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

I didn't go to Texas Roadhouse though, this week as well.

Did you?

I did.

Got the Texas sirloin or.

I forget Texas ribeye or Fort Worth Ribeye.

Okay.

Yeah, it's good.

But I said no to the roles, which was very difficult.

Ooh, the cinnamon butter.

You said no to that.

I'm not big on the cinnamon butter.

But Ben knows.

I asked him one time, because he was meeting me there if he could bring me some real butter.

And so he did.

He brought me some.

I think it's some Kerrygold butter.

That was.

What is it?

Just regular butter.

Oh, that's Irish stuff, right?

No, that's.

What is it?

What is it?

Lando Lake.

Oh, yeah.

Olive oil and sea salt.

Yeah, it was good.

Good.

Yeah.

Just because, you know, the butter is like half margarine, half butter.

And so I prefer not to eat.

We go back and forth because.

Because the rolls over at.

At Chedd are pretty Good, too.

Yeah, I think they're better.

Cheddars are better, too.

I agree.

100 Croissant.

Well, it's like a honey.

Honey butter or something.

It's just so good on the croissants.

Right?

Don't they have cheese curds?

Yeah, I've never had them.

The first time we went there was when we went to Tennessee.

Yeah, I remember that.

And then they finally had them out here, and then we went.

And I don't think it was very good our first time because it was just open.

So I don't think they were, like,.

Up to on it.

They know.

They were just figuring things out still.

I'm sure it's great now, right, out here.

Yeah.

Well, we went recently.

I did not have.

My last experience was not great there, and I've had some pretty.

I've had some pretty good experiences there.

This last one was.

Yeah, they overcooked my steak.

I mean, the service was terrible.

Did you eat half of it and send it back?

No.

No.

Okay.

He just finished it.

Yeah.

I mean, the waitress was never around, so I couldn't even tell her, like, even more.

So you keep eating more and more just to make sure, you know, it's like, hey, I don't know.

This is not good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it was not a great experience.

So I don't know.

Maybe not go back.

I don't know.

Maybe it was just a bad day.

I don't know.

But their roles are.

Are phenomenal.

They're.

They're really good.

That honey butter is just.

And I do think they are better than Texas Roadhouse.

But, yeah, we tried karaba.

So we went to Carrabba's, what, about a week ago?

And that was.

That was pretty phenomenal.

That bread's pretty good too.

Yeah.

What was that?

What's that?

I forget the name of that sauce, the one that you like, that pasta wheezy or.

No, not the wheezy.

That's what she got.

Pasta caramba.

Caramba.

Or chicken parm or the olive vodka one or whatever.

Oh, penny alla vodka.

That was pretty bomb.

Yeah, it's really good.

Yeah.

And then, you know, the bread with the oil and whatever, it's.

It's bomb, dude.

It's good.

It was pretty good.

Yeah.

Pretty much when I go there, I'm high score on the blood sugar, the glucose monitor.

Yeah, it's not good.

Yeah.

So bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.

It's not for winning.

Yeah.

It's an infamous.

Yeah.

Win.

But, yeah, try to stay away from there.

For sure.

Yeah.

It's good stuff, though.

I mean, I enjoy it.

There's Caesar salad too.

You know, there's somebody in your family that loves Caesar salad.

My wife loves Caesar.

So.

So you.

So what's funny is you like all salads.

She loves Caesar.

That's awesome.

Caesar salad.

Yeah, with chicken.

Just plain.

Just playing a little parmesan.

See, sometimes that chicken will mess you up.

Yeah, it's like a hit or miss, depending on where you go.

Okay, good.

Sometimes it's like I should have just had it without chicken.

Really?

Chick Fil A, since it's always pretty good with chicken.

Yes.

I don't know that it's healthy for you.

I don't like the grill.

That was actually the last meal that I had before.

Yeah, that was my last meal.

Literally last meal.

Because the grill looks kind of fake to me.

It doesn't look like real.

Like it's.

Yeah.

I don't even know what fast food, what's real, what's not.

I don't know.

It's chicken.

Chicken McNuggets over at McDonald's.

Is that me?

It's like hot dogs.

Yeah.

Ground up hot dogs with breading.

I don't know.

I will say though, I did try the chicken and waffles with bacon at Chick Fil A.

That.

That was pretty.

That was pretty good, dude.

Like, I would.

I would do it.

Have syrup on it or.

No, they give you syrup.

Really?

But I came home and you know me, I'm a syrups knob.

So I. I like real syrup.

You put your own syrup.

So I wouldn't put my own service.

That was good, dude.

I guess it's like chicken and waffle, right?

I mean, like, it is the original theme of it.

I just.

I prefer, you know, I like it separate.

Like Lolo's, you know, they put the waffle and the chicken.

I don't like it.

Yeah, honey.

I mean, syrup over my chicken.

It was actually not kind of weird.

It was pretty good, you know?

It's pretty good.

It's.

It's kind of like.

I don't know, you guys probably think I'm weird, but I do like French fries with like vanilla ice cream.

So I'll go get like a.

That is weird.

Like a frosty.

Like a Frosty with fries.

I just did that a week ago.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'm not weird.

Here.

Okay, cool.

I like that.

I dig on it.

Especially if the fries are crunchy.

A little more well done, you know, nice and salty.

I like fries with salt.

You gotta try it, bro.

Well, I know now you know, I like salt on the fries, but yeah,.

I like salt on everything.

Oh, yeah, of course.

I'll bring my own shaker.

It's.

I love salt.

You're in good company.

My body probably doesn't, but I love.

It, you know, it's good for you.

Yeah.

You have like smoked salt, don't you?

I do.

And then I have some from Chipotle.

They asked for a salt and they gave me like a six month supply.

And so I just bring it to Buffalo Wild Wings.

And I'm really sad because I looked at it.

Yeah, really?

I said, can I have some salt?

And they gave me a whole container of salt and I'm like, like, I love salt.

But like, wow.

It was like Lot's wife in the little.

That's how much they gave me.

Was it like 20 bucks?

Were you supposed to take it back?

No, you know the.

It's like a plastic.

You know where they put the guacamole in?

Yes.

They gave me the guacamole cup full of salt and it's like good Roc salt.

It's not like cheap granular.

It's.

It's good.

Is that like 20 bucks?

Because I mean, you asked for extra walk and it's like, I know.

That's the only thing they didn't.

That's why they charge so much.

So they can give people, you know, enormous amounts of salt.

You can charge me anything.

Wow.

I ask always for things after I paid because they don't want to ring up, you know what, just, here's a large drink.

Oh, okay, thanks.

You know, I already have a system.

Or when they're serving you steak, I like to talk, engage conversation because then their hand doesn't pay attention and they just give a little bit more because, you know, they don't give you very much.

I actually asked for it the other day at Chipotle and say, hey man, can I get a little bit more just because, you know, a little more carnitas on there.

He's like, yeah, sure, why not?

I just asked.

And these double up your pricing.

Oh, you got double steak.

Like I did not.

Well, it looks like it.

Well, I don't know what it looks like.

I didn't get double state.

This is a normal person portion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good stuff.

Yep.

All you want to get into it, we jump in.

Jump in.

We'll be here before we lose the listeners.

Yeah, they're still here.

Yeah.

So today we've got.

Sasa is going to read Word of the day, which is miraculous.

And we've got a couple of actually here.

And yeah, we're going to jump into a.

An awesome story here.

Can't wait.

1828 Reference performed supernaturally or by a power beyond the ordinary agency of natural laws affected by the direct agency of.

And the.

It's capital A almighty power referring to God and not by natural causes as the miraculous healing of the sick are raising the dead by Christ.

Cool.

And did you have the.

I do not have the verses.

Get the verses up.

I, I can pull it up here.

Give me just a second.

Sorry about that.

No worries.

Oh, sorry.

73:26.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

And then I believe we have Matthew.

And that is.

And looking at them, Jesus said to them, with people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

And so today we're going to share a story.

And this is a tremendous story.

So just to give a little bit of a backstory, my wife and I started going to Calvary Community Church here about a year ago.

And we were, I don't want to say introduced, but we, we took note of Brooke.

She, she's part of the worship team there.

She has a beautiful voice and she, she would sing for, for the worship team.

And so a little, a little time passed, I guess, when we were pretending and we, we ended up getting this horrible message from one of our pastors that something very traumatic had happened to Brooke.

And so that was our first introduction to Brooke.

I didn't know Zach at the time, but, but I know at that time my wife and I were, I mean, we definitely prayed and it was just a thing that was.

Was horrific in our church at that time.

It was definitely a trial that our church went through.

And so today I'm here to say that everything worked out to God's glory.

We read the word miraculous.

And this is going to be a story about a miracle.

And I'm excited to hear what Zach and Brooke are going to share today.

They're going to share their story about how Brooke died.

And she's here today, living and breathing one.

And this is the cool part.

Eating salads.

Yeah, eating salads.

And here's the cool part, this happened a year ago today.

So today is the one year anniversary where Brooke died and was brought back to life.

So, guys, the floor is yours.

However, you guys would like to share your story.

Zach, I know I'm sure you've got something to, you know, share.

Brooke, I know you have some, some thoughts, so you guys go ahead and share.

I can start it because obviously I have the perspective of like right before and then everything else afterwards is Zach.

Yeah, but I was just watching TV with my.

My brother and my daughter and had just eaten my brother.

We literally were watching, which is even weirder, a documentary called Died Suddenly, which is just a.

That's just a side note.

It's very the.

I think of all these little things that were included that it's just like, that's just good to think about it, you know?

But yeah, so my brother left.

I had told my daughter I.

We had eaten, and I was like, man, my stomach doesn't feel very good.

I'm gonna go and lay down now, you know, and she was like, okay, mom, I love you.

I'm like, I love you to, you know, so go in the room.

So that's one thing that God protected my daughter from.

So that it wasn't, you know, I. I made sure to go to bed, you know, but get into the room.

Fans are blazing.

Zach is asleep, TV's on, but I'm about to shut the TV off.

You know, I know that he wears earplugs.

Like he can't really hear already.

He's kind of got.

He's kind of hard of hearing.

So there's just all those little pieces, you know.

But I was feeling like I normally do after I eat, and I always have stomach issues, but I went to lay down and turned the TV off.

And the moment that I went to lay back, my heart just started to.

And it was out of control.

And I immediately was like, oh, my gosh.

I have about 10 seconds.

I know that something is terribly wrong.

Either it's gonna stop.

Like, I didn't even wanna move, barely.

And I just thought, I have to wake up Zach.

I have to wake him up.

Like, he has to.

If he's awake, then it's like there's that piece of.

Like something's next.

Something can happen next, you know?

Cause if I would not have woken him up, I don't know if I would be here right now.

But I immediately just started hitting him.

And I'm like, babe, babe, you know?

And I just pretty much tried to do that a couple Times.

And then I just.

I thought he woke up.

And then I went and I kind of curled into a little.

A little shell of a ball, and I just said, jesus, please save me.

And that's all I remember.

And I remember even when I said, jesus, please save me, there was literally.

I felt like I was like.

It was like melting into just peace.

It really was not scary.

I wasn't in any pain.

I wasn't.

It wasn't.

I wasn't afraid.

It was just knowing that, like, I just had to act and do what I needed to do to get him up.

But I did not fear.

I was not afraid.

And then, literally, I woke up days later, and I have just a peaceful quiet was not part of the trauma that my poor family had to endure.

But that's pretty much where my story, you know, like, from what I can remember.

And then Zach wakes up.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna do my best to articulate what happened over the next four days.

Right.

There's a lot of detail.

I'm sure it's gonna squirrel kind of left and right a little bit.

Right.

But we're just gonna let the good Lord lead.

First parts, kind of that intense emotional part, you know?

So take a deep breath.

Get a drink of water real quick.

So.

September 27, 1:14am I'm out cold, right?

About three hours before she came in the room and went to sleep.

I have a really, you know, crazy job.

Very demanding.

Barely slept all week long.

Took magnesium to try to sleep that night.

Had earplugs in, two box fans, main fan going, I'm out cold.

Right?

Here's where it started with me.

Faintly, very faintly, I heard, babe, babe.

It's all I heard, right.

Normally, if I hear that at all, I'm thinking I'm just sprawled out on her side of the bed, you know, just move over a little bit.

Everything's gonna be good.

Yeah, that's usually what I do.

And I ignore it, right?

Not this time.

I said, babe, babe.

And something just prompted me.

Something we know, God, right?

Prompted me to just keep saying her name and saying it louder, you know?

So, babe, babe, babe.

She doesn't respond again.

I yell, babe.

She doesn't respond.

I leap up out of bed.

I turned the light on on her ceiling fan.

And what I saw next was probably one of the most horrific things, you know, I never want to see it again in my entire life.

I've got the person the Lord has given me here on Earth that I absolutely love the most.

And I see her curled back, her Eyes completely rolled back in her head, her hands like this, her tongue kind of like this.

Her face is almost kind of white at this point, right?

And it almost looked like she was having a seizure.

So that's everything that I saw immediately when I looked at her, right?

When I flip on the lights, right, I go, babe.

And I cry out to Jesus.

I cry out to Jesus at the top of my lungs with everything that was with me in me, right?

Jesus, help.

So our two youngest daughters ran into the room, Chloe and Veda.

And they go, daddy, what's happening?

And I said, go pray right now.

I need to call 91 1.

So this is all within 20 seconds, right?

So I go to grab my phone and I call 911.

Now I gotta rewind a little bit because this is how God works, right?

And I gotta.

God has to be glorified in this.

It's important to capture the details of what he did, not just in this moment, but everything leading up to this, right?

He's outside of time.

He knows everything.

He's got a plan and a purpose for everything.

And he could have done anything with Brooke that he wanted.

And I'm thankful that she's here today.

About five weeks earlier or so, her brother was actually driving with a girl.

And I'm going to keep this kind of very high level.

I'll just say this girl, he knows her, but she kind of stands for, I would say everything, maybe that he is kind of against per se in this world and almost like an enemy type, you know, feeling a relationship while she goes on cardiac arrest in his car as they're driving, right?

And here's this girl that stands for everything against what he stands for.

And, you know, he had sworn up until that point, basically, if I ever meet somebody that you know is like this or does this or whatever, right?

I'm just gonna basically nix them out of my life, right?

Pretty much.

I hope they die, right?

It's.

But I won't get into details about what it is, right?

But there's a point to it.

In that moment, he made a conscious decision.

And his enemy right there, he loved his enemy.

So he did CPR on her, did chest compressions until paramedics arrived.

And ultimately the girl lived, they said, because he did chest compressions on her the entire time, right?

It's what saved her life.

Well, he comes over to our house, right?

And it's maybe two weeks before this happens to Brooke.

And he's telling us about, you know, everything that occurred.

And I've never had Any CPR training, anything, right?

And I'm asking him details about it, what's happened.

And so, sure enough, within that two week period, I'm like, you know, I work literally in a college of nursing and healthcare professions, but I'm like the business guy, right?

Not a clinician whatsoever.

And so I just so happen to pull up YouTube, right?

How do you do CPR?

Really crazy.

Within that two weeks, right?

And I'm like, just in case it ever happens.

So now let me kind of fast forward again.

I call 911.

I will tell you if that did not occur.

When I grew up, my stepmom had epilepsy, right?

So I'm used to seeing somebody have seizures.

And when somebody's having a seizure, the first thing you do is flip them on their side so they don't choke on their tongue, right?

If I would have done that to her, she would have died.

There's no way that she would be here right now.

But the Moment I dial 91 1, immediately to the forefront of my mind comes a thought.

You will have to do chest compressions on her right away, right?

So glory to God, number one, right?

Number two, actually.

First for waking me up, number two for all of that happening.

Then I get 911 on the phone and they had me check if she's breathing.

I'm like, no, she's not breathing.

You know, it looks like she's almost gasping for last breaths right now.

And they said, sir, you're going to need to begin chest compressions right away.

Immediately I go into action.

Never doing this before, right?

And this is all God, right?

So Now I've got 911 on the phone right here.

I've got.

I'm doing counts of 30, doing chest compressions.

I'm yelling to Brooke to just wake up.

And I am screaming out to God the whole time, God help.

God help.

Jesus help.

I'm telling you, the people at 911, they probably.

This guy's nuts, you know, does he think God's actually going to help him in this?

Yes, I do.

And that's why I called him.

And he did help.

So glory to God, right now, the.

The hardest part of all that I watched Brooke die in front of my eyes.

Die, Take her very last breath.

Gone, just like silence.

And I'm yelling at 911, get them here.

Get them here.

You know, Lord, please help.

Please wake her up.

So next thing I know, I hear a knock on the bedroom door.

And it's a paramedics.

They were there.

I have no idea how much time.

Actually went by right within 116 when they.

They dispatched.

And then they got there by 122.

122.

And it was 114 when I called.

Right.

And I probably died at 119.

Yeah, you probably did.

That's a whole nother story.

Yeah.

So they.

They rush into the room.

They make me leave the room, right?

I go into the room across from ours, which is Chloe's room, and all three of our daughters are in their page, Chloe and Veda.

And I kneel down with them, and I just say, let's pray, you know?

And we just start praying and praying.

And Paige, I'm so proud of her oldest daughter is.

I'm losing it, man.

Like, the girls to this day, they say, daddy, I've never seen you like that.

You know, our entire life, we've never seen you like that, you know, which was probably good because they got to see me in my most desperate time, crying out to the Lord for help right before anybody else.

But Paige stayed so calm for her little sisters, and I was just so proud of her, you know?

And just again, it's all how God worked everything together.

So we get down, we pray, and then, sure enough, a paramedic comes out, and he pulls me out of the room, and he makes me shut the door with our daughters behind the room and Brooks in another room.

The door is shut.

I'm in the hallway with him, and he said, sir, he said, I need you to keep that door shut.

We're going to wheel your wife out.

Like, wait, what?

What do you mean?

And he said, sir, you need to close that door.

Your daughters can't see this.

We're gonna bring your wife out now.

So I shut the door, and then he shuts the door and goes back in the room with Brooke.

And I'm in the hallway by myself.

And instantly the thoughts going through my head are, wow, he's telling me my wife just died, right?

And I remember in that moment, sorry about these emotions, you know, being in the hallway and just crying out to the Lord from.

My inner man is saying, lord, I don't understand.

I don't understand.

And I'll tell you why.

We, in the early years of our marriage, like, we went through so much, and the Lord has brought us so far, you know, to where marriage is just flourishing.

And I. Internally, it's like, you know, when he promises you something, right?

I'm like, lord, I thought you promised us that we grow old together, you know, and have this kind of Beautiful ending, per se.

Just what he promised me.

And in that moment, right when I said, I don't understand her, just trust me, trust me.

Don't lean on your own understanding.

So I just took a deep breath and I waited.

And the paramedics came out.

They took Brooke out of the room.

And she had this ventilator thing on her.

All of them were rushing.

They wouldn't let me come with her.

They're like, we need to go now.

You need to meet us there.

We can't wait for you.

One of them stayed behind.

And I'm like, dude, please tell me what's going on.

He's like, we can't tell you.

You know, we can't.

We can't tell you this stuff.

You know, it has to be a doctor, basically, right?

So I tell him what I do, you know, for a living.

And so I think the guy had a little bit more compassion and understanding, and he said, look, I'm going to tell you this much.

Your wife's heart was beating enough that we had to try and shock her four times.

And every single attempt was unsuccessful.

And she's not breathing on her own right now.

So with anybody with a medical background, you know, well, her heart's completely stopped.

Then that means that she's completely not breathing on her own.

And he's literally telling me right now that my wife is dead.

And if there's any life that you have, it's.

It's artificial right now, right?

From artificial life support.

So they get her to the hospital.

Now I throw on some clothes, I get in the car, and I fly to the hospital.

And I think I called one person first, my mom.

And then just everybody started to get called from there, you know, from other people.

I get to the hospital and I go back.

They take me to this, like, consoling room, right?

Where it's got, like, all these.

Basically, it's like, for people whose loved ones just died, right?

And I'm in there by myself, and I'm just praying and like, lord, no, please, please, I know you could do anything, you know, anything.

So please perform a miracle.

Please bring Brooke back to life while a nurse comes back.

And again, he's not telling me anything at first.

And he's like, sir, you just really gotta wait for the doctors.

And again I tell him, you know, like, this is what I do, you know?

And please just tell me something.

He said, okay, I'll tell you this.

Somehow your wife's heart just started.

Like, we got a very small beat again.

She's up in CT right now.

And that's all I could tell you right now.

And they're going to bring you back and tell you more information soon.

Boom.

Okay?

That's where we're at now.

We go, they take me back.

The Lazarus effect, right?

So this is just.

It's so crazy, man, the way all this worked.

We go, we're in the er, right?

In the trauma unit.

We go to the, you know, the trauma room that she's in, and for about three or four hours, actually, I'll back up.

I talked to the nurse who was there first, and the nurse said, look, she's like, I don't know how to explain this to you, but your wife shouldn't be here at all right now.

She's like, I'm not telling you that things look good, right?

But I am telling you that she shouldn't be here.

They try to shock your wife's heart four times.

Her heart was stopped.

Get it, get this, right?

Her heart was stopped completely, for at least 31 minutes.

Clinically dead.

Imagine that somebody's dead on the floor, completely dead.

You go out, you get lunch, come back 31 minutes later, right?

That's her.

She's dead for 31 minutes.

The moment she hit the bed in that trauma unit, she had return of spontaneous circulation.

And I said, well, how rare is that?

She said, well, you don't get it.

It's not just rare.

It doesn't happen.

We've never seen it happen.

I've never seen it happen.

So I'm just immediately thankful.

Right there.

I want to read you something.

This is just mind blowing.

This is why I have my phone up here.

This will maybe kind of give you some context, right, Because Brooks heart stopped, right?

But you got to imagine when your heart stops.

What else stops?

Oxygen doesn't get, you know, pumped to your major organs in your body with your brain.

Exactly.

Your brain being your most critical organ, right?

So just a quick little Google, right?

The human brain can go without oxygen for about four minutes before permanent brain damage begins to occur.

Zero to 10 seconds, you lose in consciousness, remaining oxygen is all used up.

One minute, brain cells begin to die in activity, slows down.

Three minutes, neurons suffer heavy injury and lasting harm becomes likely.

Four to six minutes.

Severe permanent brain damage is very likely and survival risks rise.

Ten minutes or more, deep coma or irreversible brain death usually happens, right?

And again, hers was stopped for 31 minutes at least.

You see her sitting here right now, fully recovered, which we're going to get into some more detail, but I had just randomly, you know, just googled this, right?

You know, how rare is it for this to happen to somebody, you know, and actually recover?

Fully recovering after a cardiac arrest, where the heart has stopped for 31 minutes is exceptionally rare, with the likelihood of leaving the hospital without major brain damage dropping to less than 1%.

While the heart can sometimes successfully be restarted after prolonged periods, the brain is highly sensitive to oxygen deprivation.

Irreversible damage usually begins within four to six minutes without blood flow.

I'm Rebecca Mendez with Lamplight Ministries, where I serve the Lord by loving others.

Through biblical counseling and workshops.

Every day we're reminded of our fallen world through disappointment, grief, fear, despair.

We need a savior.

And in Jesus Christ, we have that Savior.

He came to rescue us, offering his spirit to guide us and his word to comfort, correct and lead us.

If you're a follower of Christ, eager to grow in him, I'd be honored to walk this journey with you through one on one biblical counseling.

Together we'll explore God's word, find encouragement, and pursue faithful obedience to our Savior.

Please Visit me at lamplightministries.com to book your appointment today.

So why do I say that?

So for about three or four hours after she goes into the trauma unit, she's having these like sporadic convulsions.

Again, it almost looked like she was having full on like a grand mal seizure, right?

They're pumping her full of meds, maxed her out on seizure meds.

They couldn't get it to stop, right?

So they get the entire ICU team to come down, and the head of the ICU comes down and the room is packed full of people.

And so he just, room gets silent and he's kind of addressing me even though everybody else is in the room, right?

And he said, you know, sir, he's like, I, I wish I could tell you that those are seizures, but they're not seizures.

He said, you know, you're.

Even though you did chest compressions on your wife that whole time, you got to understand for somebody's heart to be stopped for at least 31 minutes, it's critically detrimental.

Like, even if you're doing chest compressions for your brain to survive anything after that, I mean, it's almost next to impossible, right?

And then I'm like, okay, so just what does this mean?

Right?

What's the next step?

That's what I asked him.

And he grabs me on the shoulder and looks at me and he said, just.

He said, sir, if I had to be blunt with you, your wife's not gonna make it past 72 hours, let me tell you.

I did not know what it felt like to actually have your heart fully shattered within you until that very moment.

It was like time stopped.

Everything got silent, and I probably.

I just cried out like a whale, right?

And then this is what was really cool.

This whole room just packed full of medical professionals, right?

Brooke's mom, Anna, walks over to me, grabs me by the shoulders and looks at me in the eye and says, son, do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and savior and that he could do anything?

And he said, absolutely.

And she said, then anytime, any doubt comes up, just reject it.

Hold on to faith.

Keep bringing it before the Lord, knowing he can do everything, right?

He can do anything, but just have faith.

Have faith, you know?

So I did, by the grace of God.

And so now I'm going to kind of fast forward things a little bit, because this is everything we've now just been told, right?

First she was dead, then she's alive.

Then we're told that she's not gonna live, right?

And then.

And then if there's this slim miracle that she does live, there's no way that she's gonna have any brain activity whatsoever.

So then we get up to the icu, they get an expert cardiologist to that hospital, and another whole team of people are in there.

And they found out the core issue is that her left ventricle in her heart had completely stopped working when it started to randomly flutter again, right.

30 Minutes later, like.

Like that.

Like, that's what my heart was literally like.

They, Mike, we have a rep that helped, a clinical rep. And she's like, I literally saw your heart and on the.

On the scan, and it was.

It was just barely.

Is that what you felt when it was doing that?

Whatever that was?

I think even after I had a little bit more movement, I think it was that.

It was a harder.

Like.

But that was like, nothing.

Nothing.

It was literally just doing this.

It was, like, barely.

So it wasn't pumping?

Quivering.

No, it was doing nothing.

Yeah, it was not pumping.

That's it.

That's it.

So what that does, right, it creates an ejection fraction.

And so what that means is that, you know, your heart pulls blood and it pushes right.

Oxygenated blood back out to your body.

And so without your left ventricle working, it can't push your blood out to your body.

Hers is just quivering.

So she's just being sustained right now by full life support, right?

So they said, look, okay, here's our plan of Action.

Before we even think about her brain, we got to see if we could even fix her heart, right?

If we could fix her heart, then we can think about her brain.

But that's where we're at right now.

We need to get her in a helicopter and we need to fly her to another hospital that specializes in this kind of surgery because we don't have the equipment or the surgeons here to do it.

So sure enough, within an hour, a helicopter's there, she's en route in the sky.

I'm just, I'm flying, you know, in my car to try to meet them there.

And we get to the.

This is the second hospital now that we're at.

And by the time I got there, it's crazy, they had already performed the first heart surgery and they put in her what's called an impella device.

And it's almost.

It's cool.

We just got to fly out to their headquarters in Boston.

That's a whole nother story.

Story to give her testimony, right?

And got to see all about the device anyway.

Very, very small little device.

Very, very powerful unit though.

And they insert it up through her femoral artery, goes into her heart and it basically allows the heart to rest and it will push blood into your body so your heart chambers can just rest, right.

And recover and recover.

So they put that in her.

As soon as I get to that hospital, the cardiovascular surgeon comes out and I'm sitting down with him and almost having a.

Just a one on one like this.

But there's a whole lot of people around me, right?

All the family just got there and everything.

And so he said the surgery was successful, but we don't know for sure if this is going to work or not because we don't know exactly what's wrong with her heart.

You know, we know it stopped, but it could be one of two different things.

Was it like myocarditis or stress cardiomyopathy?

Right.

And he basically said, if it's a myocarditis, it's not good.

Like a third of people, it gets worse.

Third of people stay the same.

Third of people get better.

If it's the other one, you know, that's what we want.

Usually you could be looking at a full recovery, at least for the heart, hopefully.

So I'm like, awesome, good.

Got that in there.

I'm not kidding you, man.

This is so crazy.

It's almost.

I'll just pause and tell you this.

The way God worked this out, it was almost as if something would happen and it was detrimental and Then he would put a stepping stone out there, and he'd have to take the stepping stone of faith and completely trust him.

And he'd come through with a miracle, and there'd be all this good news, and then immediately, boom, there'd be something detrimental to get it.

Like, lord, what is going on?

You know, this is an absolute roller coaster.

But I can see he was doing it for his glory, right?

So that.

So that no man could receive any credit for any of this, that all credit would be given to God because he deserves all of it.

And so.

So I go right up to the floor.

I'm supposed to be able to go right back into the room, right?

Obviously, she's under a coma, right?

She's in a sedated coma, induced coma.

And before I can even walk back into the icu, a nurse is running at me with paperwork, and she says, you need to sign this immediately.

It's for a blood trail transfusion.

Like, what?

And they're like, we got her up there and just like, there.

She's bleeding like crazy.

We just need you to sign this.

We just will tell you what's going on later.

I'm like, oh, no.

So I sign it and she runs back, and then I'm just like, my heart's breaking again, you know, And I'm just left here just praying to the Lord.

And so anyway, what had happened there, like, because it's your femoral artery, right?

It's one of your biggest arteries.

It wasn't sealed all the way.

And so she had blood pooling up underneath her, I guess, in the bed, and they couldn't see it.

So she had almost 2 liters of blood that she was just sitting in.

Right.

Well, get this.

I guess they didn't need to do a blood transfusion then, right?

They said she was just at the point of where, you know, she hadn't lost enough blood.

And I get to go and I see her.

She's completely white, like a ghost, right?

And anyway, that's where that journey was up until that point.

And that was basically like.

Like day one, right?

Insane.

They would not let me stay there that night, which was heartbreaking.

But I also understand why, you know, I also had our daughters at home.

I need to go back, give them reassurance and everything, too.

Well, that's the first day.

Day two comes about, and it was really wild.

They said, she's for sure going to be under a full sedated coma, you know, for at least, least like three or four days before they even try to Take her out of it to see how she responds.

I don't know what prompted them to do this, but the next day they did what's called a sedation vacation where they, you know, they temporarily dropped a sedation to see how she responds.

So they did that.

And I start talking to her and I see her just start to move a little bit, you know, and so then I started to tell her a little bit about what was happening and I could see her move a little bit more.

So I'm like, brooke's in there.

I know she's in there and I know that she can hear me, you know, and probably one, two minutes later they're like, dude, we got to put her right back on sedation.

She can't be out of this right now.

You know, we just needed to test it and see how she would react.

So, yeah, anyway, she goes back, it's, you know, under sedation, there goes another day.

Now I remember praying, I think on it was, it was Sunday because it happened Saturday and this was Sunday, day two.

And I asked the Lord, I said, lord, please perform a miracle, right?

And I got to back up and tell you at this point again, everybody's telling me like, she's not going to live.

She's going to be completely brain dead.

If she has any brain activity whatsoever after all this happens, the road to recovery is going to be tremendous.

Like, you really need to prepare yourself, sir, you know, And I'm just like not accepting it, you know, because I've already, I've seen not just what happened to her, but what the Lord has done to preserve her up until this point.

You know, firsthand, I know it's God.

So I have every reason to believe that he's doing something and he's going to finish what he started here, right?

So I prayed and I said, lord, please by Tuesday perform a miracle four days later, have a rejection fraction in her heart go back up to 50%.

So it was down to 5%.

Your normal is like 60, 65% or so, right?

And it would be just mirage, miraculous for it to bounce to that within a couple days.

And then also let her be extubated so the, you know, the air tubes being pulled out, right.

She's pulled out of the sedated or the induced coma.

And when she's pulled out of it, Lord, please let her recognize me and know who I am and restore her brain function.

It's just nuts.

I'm going to tell you by Tuesday.

God did all of that and more.

But we're still on Sunday right now.

Right.

So that's the prayer that I prayed on Sunday.

What day was it when it actually all happened?

Was it like Saturday?

Saturday.

Saturday.

So like we're pretty much within the first 24 hours.

I've just passed that.

Yeah.

So all that's packed into 24 hours so far.

Right?

That's a lot.

That's a roller coaster for one hour.

Oh, my goodness.

Dude.

One day more than I probably experienced in my entire life.

How are your daughters doing at this point?

As of today or at that point?

No, at that point in.

Yeah.

Okay.

So they did not know all of the detail yet.

Right.

So I try to shield them from a little bit of it.

You know, I didn't tell them the doctor said, you know, your mom's going to die within 72 hours.

Right.

Rather I said, this is everything that happened.

We don't know for sure what's going to transpire next, but we're going to do is we're going to pray and we're going to trust in God and we're going to know that he could do everything.

And it's cool that you asked that because our middle daughter Chloe, at this point, you know, had started to come up with those questions of why do we believe what we believe when there are all these other religions out there, you know, all of this.

Right.

And we raised her up in the Lord and.

And it was so cool because out of this entire experience, at the end of it, Chloe said, dad, I don't understand how anybody can't believe in God.

Wow.

You know, after you see something like this, right?

Gives you chills, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So super thankful.

So I pray that prayer, you know, on Sunday and they're okay.

We had a lot of family and friends, church, everybody so thankful.

Thank you, everyone.

To thousands, maybe millions of people throughout the world that were praying, offering us practical support.

Right.

I mean, everybody was there for our family.

We're so thankful to our brothers and sisters in Jesus and we couldn't have done it without you, you know.

So then Monday comes about and they said they.

They checked her ejection fraction and it jumped from 5 to 30%, I believe.

Yes, 30%.

And they did another small sedation vacation on Monday and Brooke was a little bit more responsive.

The all the medical team is doubtful.

But I know Brooke, right?

I know her.

So now get this crazy.

It's just like everything happened all at once.

Tuesday comes about the.

A couple texts come in and they do a scan of her heart and they're like what the heck?

Her ejection fractions at 50%.

50%, Right.

And so then they call in the.

The entire medical team, right?

So now it's on you.

Like the medical team is.

The whole room's filled with doctors, surgeons, nurses, whoever.

It's spilling out into the hallway and they're just flabbergasted already, what they're seeing, right?

So rejection fraction return of 50%.

The main surgeon in there said, you know what, I think that we could pull out this impella device today and who knows, potentially we could take her off of the sedation.

Right.

And extubate her today too.

Way, way faster than they thought this would ever gonna happen.

Right.

I mean, so.

So at this point, are they tested the brain function at all or they were just focused on the heart right now?

Yeah.

So there was two issues that were.

Yeah, but one was primary over the other.

Yeah, dude, they're like certain.

I mean, there's certain she's brain dead at this point, right?

They're.

They're literally reassuring me every step of the way when I would tell them, yeah, but, but they're like, sir, you gotta really prepare yourself, you know,.

And.

They were doing it out of love.

And it's what they're supposed to do, right?

Because typically that's what you see happen.

They're supposed to prepare you.

So anyway, they take the impeller device out, it was successful.

They get her up to the room and they were letting her recover for a little bit.

And.

And then they had, oh, dude, I gotta rewind one day.

This is where I said I was gonna score because I can't miss this.

No, no, it's fine.

This is important.

That's good.

This is important.

It was Monday's sedation vacation, so Monday when I got there, right?

They wouldn't let me in before 8am and I asked him to wait to do it, you know, until I got there.

Well, they did it right before I walked in the room.

And so Brooke was just in a blank stare at the wall.

And I guess they weren't responding to anybody there, right?

None of the nurses, doctors.

I walk in the room and I see her eyes open and I go, babe, your eyes are open.

And she literally goes and looks right at me.

And they were just in shock.

You know, all these medical professionals are like, oh, she's responding to him.

She's responding.

And they're like, sir, keep talking to her.

So I go up and, you know, I grab her hand and she's looking at me and tears start to kind of Come down her eyes.

And I said, babe, if you want to know what happened, squeeze my hand.

Squeeze my hand.

She squeezed my hand, right?

Mind blowing, right?

So I tell her very, very high level.

And the nurse is trying to get her to squeeze her other other hand and all these.

She's not responding to other people.

Well, I go over, she squeezes my other hand.

Then her mom walks in the room, says something.

Brooke looks directly at her mom, responds to her, too.

We got her to wiggle her toes, right?

Got her to start to move around.

And the medical team is right.

This is just.

They're blown away, right?

This is on Monday, before that Tuesday stuff happened, right?

So it was like stepping stone after stepping stone of miracle.

Well, Tuesday comes about right now.

They.

They remove the impella and let's see here, they give it a couple hours and then they excavator, they take out the breathing tube and.

And I'm still there at that time.

They let me stay late that night, but they still wouldn't let me stay overnight, Right.

It's a rare thing in the ICU unless the patient you're with is probably going to die, like that night or in the next day or two.

And they're like, certain of it, right?

That's usually the only time they'll let you stay.

Well, they took her off of the sedation and she started to respond.

She could barely talk at all.

But you know for sure that she was there, right?

She could whisper little things.

I remember asking her a question that first night.

I'm like, what's the name of the program that you use for worship to enter in all the songs?

She's like, pro presenter.

I'm like, my Brookie's there.

Wow.

So really, really crazy.

So now this is where it gets awesome, right?

I had to leave that night, every other night from there for it.

I got to stay with her, but I got there the next morning and this is when, you know, they had every medical team come up.

So there were several that worked on her throughout this time, right.

But everybody came up all at once to see what.

What was going on and figure out the plan of treatment from this point forward.

And it was really packed and all of them were so blown away, right.

The room got completely silent.

They couldn't figure out how all this just transpired.

In four days, this device is out of her heart.

Her heart is now functioning.

How she has brain activity and it looks like she's rapidly recovering almost hour after hour, right?

How they didn't think she was going to survive at all.

But now they pulled the breathing together tubes out and she's living on her own life support by God, right?

And so here's what's cool in that moment.

And again, it's all because of, it's glorifying God.

You know, I just said, listen, and the whole room got silent and everybody looked at me and I said, this is what I've been trying to tell you, you know, for the last four days I've been trying to tell you what the Lord has done.

And you know, you're telling me that it's impossible, that she's going to make it, that, that she's going to live, that she's going to recover.

But I've seen miracle after miracle after miracle and I prayed these very specific things and everything has happened on this very day.

And I started to quote the very things and everybody was looking at me so intently and it was cool because in that moment I got to witness something, right?

All these medical professionals.

And it's almost like I saw three buckets of people.

One bucket.

You saw these people just smiling and beaming and you knew that they knew the Lord and they saw what happened and they knew it.

Two, you saw, you know, maybe people that had sort of a relationship with him, but they weren't sure.

And this just like strengthened their faith, right?

And then those people who don't have a relationship with Jesus, who are completely secular, right, Just absolute flesh, you know, have no true hope whatsoever.

And they just saw something that transcended their understanding.

Miraculous.

Yeah, right?

And they told me it's impossible.

So, you know, like miraculous, right?

And so it was cool because I got to just say to them right there, you know, I'm like, look, if any of you ever had someone in your life and you feel like you're in a situation where something is absolutely impossible and beyond, you call out to Jesus because he is there, he is real, he hears you and he will answer you, you know, and so I just thought that was really, really awesome, you know, of however God did that.

And so Tuesday, you know, Tuesday goes by, we're into Wednesday, right?

That's what occurred Wednesday morning.

Wednesday she started to be able to talk a little bit more, but not very much, right?

Thursday comes around and it was like a thousand fold improvement.

I mean, just crazy, dude, Thursday comes around and get this.

So they had the head pt, right?

Physical therapists come in and they're like, we're just going to try to get you to just maybe just stand up, you know, move a little bit Thinking that she's never going to be able to walk again, Brooke gets up and she walks 180ft with this, like, you know, with an assisted device.

Just.

They're just like, what, dude?

What is happening right now?

Crazy.

Right now at this point, we're in Thursday and they're talking about, okay, we didn't expect all of this, but we're seeing that she might actually make it and recover.

But we still think it's going to be a really, really long road to recovery.

Because on Thursday she's starting to talk, but they're not sure that she's fully there, right?

And she can't really move fully, fully around.

She can move, right?

But they're still doubtful.

So they're talking about, hey, when we end up getting her out of here, we're not sure when that's going to be, but we're going to need her in an acute care rehab facility, which is like an in house.

You live in there.

And she's probably gonna have to be in there for a long time trying to learn how to do things again, if she can even relearn how to do it right.

Thursday to Friday, dude.

God.

So Friday the PT comes back in the room and they're like, okay, we want to try this again.

Well, Friday it's like Brooke could talk just like this.

It's like her voice had recovered.

She was to at least be able to speak, right?

She was able to have full on conversations.

She was fully cognitively there.

I mean, fully cognitively.

Just like right here, right now, right?

So they get her up and not only does she walk a little bit, she starts doing laps around the hospital.

I'm next to her on my phone.

I got eye of the tiger plan.

Hey, Rocky over here.

Got my own Rocky right here, you know.

And so she does multiple laughs around the hospital.

We get back into the room and a case manager comes in with a few other people and they're trying to create this plan.

But the surgeon comes in and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

He's like, this is not what she needs.

He said, from everything that I've seen, he said, she does not need to be in a rehab facility.

Like this is, this is an absolute miracle for this to happen already for her to be able to do this.

What she needs, needs is to be back at home in her routine recovering, right?

She doesn't need any physical therapy whatsoever.

Just mind blowing.

I actually don't know if this is ever.

I think I've heard of One other case of this happening, right, where somebody's like fully, fully recovered, you know, with no therapy whatsoever.

And again, all.

All glory to God.

So we're done.

A six day, six day period, dude.

Six day period.

Six day period.

And if I'm giving too much detail, you know, let me know.

I just, you know, we're kind of coming towards the end of it.

I just think it's really important, you know, to paint all these little specific things that God did, you know, along the way.

And so Friday they.

Another surgeon comes in and what is it?

Electrophysiologist.

Correct.

A different type of cardiovascular surgeon.

And they put in a.

An aicd, automatic implantable something.

Defibrillator.

Right?

Cardioverter defibrillator.

So what it is, is it's a pacemaker and defibrillator combo, right?

Your heart stops, your defibrillator kicks in and it shocks your heart, right?

The pacemaker, if it goes out of a range, it kind of, you know, pace my heart.

She needs a defibrillator right now, but the pacemaker is there just in case, okay?

And so she has that put in and she gets back and it was like she was fully alert, almost like she had like no anesthesia in her whatsoever.

Dude, I'm telling you, it was crazy, man.

It was almost like, I swear, like God had this full, full aura over you.

Oh, now, it was a squirrel moment to give some exceeding glory to God.

Cuz I love Brook so much and, you know, right?

You got your stuff.

Spouses who you love, you never want to see them in any pain whatsoever.

Seeing her in all that pain.

That first day, I remember when I had to go home and I was actually, I think I was just crying my eyes out by myself in my bathroom to the Lord.

And I'm just like, lord, please, please heal her, restore her.

But while you're doing it, maybe if you would be willing to take her out of her body and don't let her feel any of that pain.

And when you heal her and restore, then bring her back into her body.

Right?

Well, I think it was actually, man.

Was it Monday morning or was it Sunday night?

I think it might have been Sunday night.

Yeah, the next night.

And Paul and Anna, her mom and her stepdad are behind me and we're all in the.

The ICU room and I remember they're going to make me leave, and I have my head on Brooke's arm and I'm talking to her.

And I remember just in my head, like, I just pictured her just smiling and I just remember telling the Lord, lord, I wish I could just take all this from her, you know?

And I'm like, babe, I love you.

And just.

It was crazy in that moment, it was like God sent her spirit surging back into her body.

I'm telling you, in that moment, I felt it because my head was on her arm, but her parents saw it.

So Brooke leapt up and then hit the bed back down, like, right in that moment.

Right.

Like it was God putting her spirit in her body again.

So I believe that he also answered that prayer.

You know, her mom had a dream vision, maybe one of those nights where her mom couldn't see all the same things that Brooke was seeing, but basically.

Basically, like walking her through heaven.

Pretty much.

That's it.

Yeah.

Like, Brooke was in heaven and she was describing heaven, and it was very vivid to her mom, but her mom couldn't see everything that Brooke was saying, you know?

But, like, she was certain Brooke was there, you know, and she also knew everything was going to be okay at the same time.

So I believe that the Lord had her there in spirit while her body was here, and he was healing her body so she didn't have to experience that pain and agony.

For that, I'm super, super grateful.

Yeah.

And it's just really neat because when my mom talks about that, she expresses, you know, like, when I woke up, like, I knew that it wasn't even, like, I knew you were going to be okay and everything was going to be fine.

It was just the clarity of I knew that my daughter was going to be with Jesus.

Like, and that's what I think was really precious is just like, it wasn't even about if my daughter was going to get to be here at all.

You know, it's just more of, like, I know that no matter if he takes her or not, like, she's gonna be with.

She's gonna be with Jesus, because.

So, yeah, she told me that night she surrendered to the Lord when she put her head on the bed.

She was in a hotel that night by the.

The hospital said she laid her bed, head on the bed, like, still was pretty much fully awake.

Yeah.

Just said, lord, I surrendered to you, whatever you want, you know?

And then that just.

He just started to see her, or.

I'm sorry, she started to see her, you know, in that vision or that dream from that point forward.

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Anyway, I didn't want to miss that piece because I.

It was really profound what happened.

And her mom and her stepdad were shocked.

Well, we're, you know, we're fast forwarding to Friday now, and she has this AICD put in, and she dramatically recovers.

And they have us staying there for one more day.

They put her down in the step down unit on Saturday.

And then they said, look, we don't really know how to explain this.

Right?

We don't really, you know, this is just beyond us.

But you're at a place of where we could discharge you today.

Wow.

And you can either go home or.

They wanted us to go to a third hospital because Brookhead.

A lot of gastrointestinal bleeding through one part of it.

Yeah, they might have nicked you.

Yeah, they might have nicked you a little bit.

But she did.

And thank God I signed that paperwork, right?

I missed this piece a couple of the nights Brooke had to have multiple blood transfusions because of the blood loss she was losing from her GI tract.

Right.

And because all that paperwork was signed, she was able to get all of that, you know, when she needed it, when they wouldn't let me be up there.

So I missed that part.

Right.

That's a.

It's an important piece, too.

Well, we go to the other hospital, and they could never find what this bleed was.

They're like, whatever this bleed was, we've scoped you.

They're like, it must have just healed up.

We can't figure it out, you know, so 11 days, 11 days later, right?

Three different hospitals, two different heart surgeries were discharged, and we bring her back home.

And, man, one of the best days of my entire life.

And I want to give you something.

I actually forgot that I had this in my pocket.

So, you know, we celebrated, right.

The one year yesterday, even though it's officially today.

And Burke just made a joke.

Hey, did you get me anything?

You know, and.

And I. I have something for it, but I was waiting for today.

I was thinking for a long time, babe, what Could I get you.

You know, that's not cliche.

At first, I was thinking about jewelry, something like that.

I'm like, it's got to be something more meaningful, more powerful.

It could be simple, but it has to mean something.

And so, you know, we all know what an Ebenezer Right is.

Not Ebenezer Scrooge, but I raised my Ebenezer right.

So, you know, throughout Scripture, when the Lord had provided miraculously.

Right.

Provide us for his people, whatever it was, many times they would raise an altar or an Ebenezer so that when they would pass by, they would remember the things that the Lord had done right in the past, and they would never forget to bring him glory.

And so that it would continue to strengthen their faith going forward, knowing that he was there with them then and he will always be with them.

So I got you something that I hope you don't think it's stupid, but I think it's like an Ebenezer.

And so I'm going to show it to you, then I'm going to explain it.

So the simplicity in it is.

It's a keychain.

Okay.

But the message in all of it is extremely powerful.

So first, I don't know if you can even get that on there or not, but there is a laser engraving of the very first time that me, Paige, Chloe, and Veda got to be back together with Brooke in the hospital room when they brought her out.

Oh, it's a photo.

It is a photo.

The first photo that all five of us got to have again together when Brooke was brought back to life.

If God didn't do what he did, we would never, ever have gotten to have that photo.

And then it has a heart around the 27th.

Right.

September 27th.

Because that's the day your heart stopped, and that's the day that the Lord brought you back to life.

And then over the past year, relentlessly, Brooke has said, you know, most people say, yolo.

You only live once.

She's like, not for me.

She's like, for me, the Lord made it yolt.

You only live twice.

So I got another little tag that says yolt on there.

That's awesome.

And so here's the deal.

It seems simple, but it's got to be an Ebenezer.

Yeah.

Every time.

Here's what I thought.

Every time you grab your keys.

Yeah.

Every time you're about to go out into the unknown.

What you don't Know what God already knows and has a plan for.

Anytime you're stressed, anytime, right, you're grabbing your keys just to go.

Let this be a reminder that the Lord has always been there for you, that he has you here for a purpose, because if your time was up, he would have you home with Him.

Right.

I'm so thankful, selfishly, that his time for you isn't up and you're here with us right now because I love you and I don't know what I would do without you, you know?

But let this be a reminder to give praise to the Lord and to find strength in the confidence that comes from trusting in him, knowing that the good work that he started in you, he will be faithful to bring it to completion, the day of Jesus Christ.

So I love it.

Thank you very much.

Live on.

Live on the podcast.

Yeah.

Wow, that's amazing.

We all get experience it.

So.

So now a year later, I mean.

I mean, obviously something like this, it's.

It impacts you.

Oh, it changes you.

So.

So tell me a little bit about, like, what.

What's different now?

Yes.

Before, the routine of life was on, just in full swing.

Always the schedules, the routines, just going, going, going, going, going all the time.

And anything that would come in that could mess that up, it was like a detour, like, and it would just, like, I have one more thing, you know, and not really living, but just like coasting through everything, you know, even.

Like, even through my worship, even through service.

You know, there's just certain things where it's like, you just get in that headspace where you're just going through the motions.

And the Lord just showed me how important it is to be present.

And he literally stripped me from all of that.

Like, I was.

I am not able to have the schedule that I tried to have before.

Like, things are just not.

They don't really matter.

There's certain things that are just not important.

And like, the things that we, you know, put in our household, it just to be like a.

Like bedtime.

Bedtime was strict at 8 o'.

Clock.

It was just.

I had to do it at this time.

And I'm fighting them for an hour and a half just getting them in their room.

But now it's like, I just go to bed, you know, it's like.

And it's.

It's so neat, though, because I know that my kids, they see the difference in just how things are.

And just for me, I am able to just.

Every single moment is a.

Is a moment well lived.

I mean, literally, like, the Things that we take for granted and the things that just pass us by in our normal everyday routines.

You know, we were talking about this yesterday and just going.

Kind of going through, like, all the things that were milestones this past year, you know, that it's like, my gosh,.

I was able to be here for.

For Thanksgiving and for Christmas and for.

Chloe's birthday and then, like, New Year's.

And I think when New Year's hit, that was kind of like that moment where I was in the living room where God, like, showed me, like, this is going to happen all the time.

Like, he's going to give you these moments where you're just.

You see, like, what it is to be alive and to be present.

And it's just so cool because we're, like, counting down, you know, counting down through the.

The timer.

10, 9.

We got beta and Chloe and Paige and Zach and, like, and Paige's boyfriend.

And we're all just sitting there around the tv, just like.

And I'm just sitting there like, oh, my gosh.

Like, even just this moment of just would be so different, you know, Everything would be so different for them, you know?

I mean, I wouldn't be there to even get to witness and experience all these things that.

How many.

How many New years have you been through?

I mean, it's all.

It's just another year, you know?

But something about that just.

The Lord just showed me that this is going to be something that you recognize a lot.

You're going to see these things all the time.

And I do.

I do every single morning when I braid my daughter's hair, every single morning.

And as I'm sitting there braiding, it's like I'll just.

Sometimes I'll just weep because it's like, man, these little things, like, I get to do this for her, you know, And I.

She wouldn't.

I wouldn't be here to do this for her every morning.

And, like, so just the smallest things that God will just bring life to, that maybe at a time was just part of the.

Just routine and schedule, and I wasn't even present for it.

I can't help but be present for all the moments now.

And so, yeah, that's like the biggest thing.

Like, God has just helped me to be present in everything and to slow down.

Just.

I mean, I sit, I rest.

I just let life happen around me, you know, and just get to be a part of it while I'm in.

The middle of it and let them.

Come to me and just get to be around, like, Just.

It's just so much different then because I just wouldn't even sit.

I would just be going and getting.

Do this done, and I got to do this now.

I got to do this.

And now I'm just like, I don't have.

I'm not going to do anything.

I'm going to sit here.

What do you.

What do you like?

I'm more available.

I'm just available.

And I'm present for all the moments now.

And it's amazing, actually.

Like, I'm thankful for it because I think I have a perspective that, you know, everybody wishes that they, you know, it's.

Everybody hopes to have a perspective like that sometimes.

It's very overwhelming, but I'm so incredibly thankful for it because even this.

The most mundane moments, like, the Lord just continues to just, like, show me how thankful and what an honor it is to just be in just every little tedious detail of your life.

So.

Because he's sitting there just, like, putting it all together, and so it's.

It's just amazing.

I just.

I love it.

Yeah.

So good.

Yeah.

That's.

I mean, he's truly sovereign.

I mean, he obviously, like you said, he's.

He has a purpose.

I mean, if otherwise, you be with him right now.

So there's.

So you're.

You're still here for a purpose.

And that's amazing.

That's truly amazing.

How about you, Zach?

Zach, I know you.

You.

That was traumatic for you, bro.

Like, I can't imagine, as a husband, I can't imagine what you went through.

And obviously that's, I'm sure, changed you as well.

How has that impacted you?

I'd say surrender.

Presence and love are the three keys.

I'd say surrender in this sense, surrendering to the moment, knowing that the control you think you have, you don't really have.

God's in control, right?

And like I said, he could do whatever he wants.

The hard part is trusting that whatever he chooses to.

To do, right?

It's for good.

It's for his purpose, for his glory, right?

And to accept it.

And I think I've had a kind of wrestle over the past year.

When I think back through it, if something like this ever happened again, and it's like, what do you have to do?

You have no choice but to surrender and accept what God's bringing to you.

I had to accept that either the Lord could take her or the Lord could preserve her life and keep her here with us.

And so I think that's one big thing because, you know, we can get really anxious when we think that control is up to us because we're scrambling, trying to make something happen.

But when we find ourselves in surrender, trusting that the Lord's will will prevail, you know, and his will is good, we receive that peace that surpasses understanding.

And so I find myself in.

Not that the circumstances have all changed in life, right?

But maybe the lens that I see, see it through, has changed.

Learning a lens of surrender, presence, like she said, I would echo that one.

I'm still learning it.

I think that she's learned it a lot more.

But just being present in the moment, you know, up until that happened, my mind would, like, always be in the future or in the past.

Never.

Yeah, right.

So, dude, it is a battle, man.

And it's funny because I heard this saying a long time ago, you know, living in the future is anxiety.

Living in the past is depression or bondage.

Living in the presence is peace.

It's a present.

It's prent.

It's all that we have right now, you know, so to be present is a gift, and it's all that we have.

We're living in eternity right now.

And so being present in learning to whatever happens, not future trip, like, ah, I got to do this.

I got to take care of this.

No, I can't do that.

Which is all I used to do.

So you guys want to watch movie?

You guys want to sit down?

You want to play a game, whatever, let's just do it, you know, And I just let the stuff go and.

And I'd say the last one, you know, that, like, love, obviously that love is there for sure, but I think seeing it in a different way, understanding the fragility of life from a different perspective.

That night that it happened, I remember I was so tired, right?

And I could hear Brooke and Paige on the other side of the house laughing, having a good time.

And I was like, I'm not going.

To go bother them.

I'm just going to go to sleep, you know?

So I didn't say good night to her that night.

And I was thinking about that, obviously before she was even, like, fully recovered, you know?

And one thing that I've really tried to be intentional about is, you know, just saying good night no matter what, you know, giving.

Giving her a kiss, telling her I love her.

I think life happens no matter what to everybody, right?

Life is hard, right?

Jesus said, right?

In this world you will have, you know, many troubles would take care for.

I've overcome the world, right?

And we know that we're in this human flesh.

So, you know, like, in marriage, obviously, there could be conflict and everything at times, it's just the inevitable.

Right.

But here's how your perspective changes when that conflict.

Conflict arises so quickly.

The Lord helps my mind to remember.

Man, I'm thankful to have this little bit of conflict right now because I might not have it at all.

And then my brain shifts to.

This is something so small and stupid in our ability to just wrap arms around each other and embrace each other and, you know, reconnect that intimate connection expeditiously has been pretty profound since this happened.

So I would say those three things.

Surrender, presence, and love.

Wow.

What would you say?

And this.

We'll.

We'll wrap up here.

But what would you say?

I mean, Brook, you've been given a second chance at life, and there's some that don't get that second chance.

And.

And just like you mentioned, Zach, right now, there is the fragility of life.

Right?

I mean, we're.

We're all hanging out by a thread.

We're delusional if we think we're in control.

And the Lord could take us out at any moment without any notice.

I mean, my.

This breath I'm breathing could be my last.

What would you say to somebody maybe right now who's maybe on the fence or riding the fence, you know, with, you know, being in the world or, you know, not.

Not quite right, with their.

With their relationship with Christ or maybe to the unbeliever, somebody who doesn't quite believe just yet.

Like, what would you say to that person?

I mean, based on your experience and how you've been given this second chance?

Oh, that, like, even, like, what Chloe said is just like, how could you not believe?

Because I can.

I get so excited about telling the story and getting to tell the testimony because I see the whole spectrum of, like, all the stuff that happened prior to so being able to just share what God did and how he just loves us so detailed and so perfectly that.

That he loved me so much that he put everything in place just as it was so that I could be saved.

Like, there's nothing.

I can't deny that it's unbelievable.

So just being able to share the story in itself and express that with my whole heart, because I know it's true.

And Jesus loves you.

I mean, and you're.

You're.

You're.

Have purpose and you're special.

I mean, you're important.

You're not just a little speck that, you know, isn't love.

Like, he absolutely Loves each and every one of us uniquely and well and perfect to, you know, to our lives.

Like it's.

Yeah.

That you're important, you know, and you're important to God and He loves you so.

Good.

Yeah, you know, that's, that's great, babe.

You know, for the unbeliever, I think, I think I'd say, you know, there was a time in my life where I wasn't sure what I believed and I wasn't sure, you know, if I knew really what the truth was.

And I would just share with them the whole testimony of my entire experience, not just what happened here.

Right.

This would feed into it.

Right.

But you know, first I called, you know, on a God that I wasn't even sure if he existed.

And I asked him to show me the truth, if he was real.

Right.

He led me to Jesus to utterly convince me in a way that only he could do because he knows me, he made me.

And I'm telling you, he convinced me in a worldly sense, right.

Like if you would think of me in a fleshly worldly sense.

Well, I'm like that guy that has all that logic that needs science based stuff, right?

You know, empirical evidence.

Empirical evidence, yeah.

I went to school, have like three degrees, right?

Like very like, you know, almost like Paul, you know, kind of talks about in that sense, you know, but knowing, like you said, you know, in all humility and humbleness, like you come to learn we can never actually have the eyes of our open unless God does it.

Right.

And so I would say, look, if you don't know and you want to know the truth and you believe and you know that there is something more than this, do what I did, just call out to God by yourself, on your own time, even if you're not sure, just ask him to show you the truth.

And I'm confident that he will show you the truth.

Like he showed me the truth in whatever way that he wants you to convince you because he knows you and he made you and he knows what you need.

And then I can come through, right.

And share some of the testimony, the things that he's done throughout life.

And then you asked a second question.

What would you say to maybe the person who's maybe not raw cause walking right.

Per se with the Lord, right.

But they know the Lord well.

I've been in many of those seasons of life myself, right?

So here's the encouragement that I would give that we can't start the work that God started us on our own, right.

In Galatians, it says, I think, Galatians 3, right?

What began by the spirit won't finish by works.

Will it not finish by the spirit, Right?

I think that's galatians, you know, three.

And I believe in Romans 7, Paul talks about the wrestling match between the inner and the outer man, right?

And he says, I'm going to paraphrase, but the very things I want to do, I don't do.

The very things I don't want to do, I do that.

Therefore, it is no longer I that do them, but sin which exists within me, that is in my flesh.

Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of this death, right?

Thanks be to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So I would say to that person, if you know the Lord, I think in the deepest core, you know, that you don't really want to be doing those things, right?

And I think that there are some things that you can actively work on and you could trim out of your life, and there are other things you're going to find yourself trying to do over and over again, and you're going to find you can't trim them out on your own.

So I encourage you with this, to ask God to help you with that, because he will ask him.

Lord, this is what I'm struggling with.

I know it's not good.

I know I don't want it there.

I know it's inhibiting our relationship, though you never leave me nor forsake me.

Right?

Maybe our fellowship, our intimacy, you know, with one another.

So, Lord, I ask that you do something that I cannot as the great physician, that you change the desire of my heart from the deepest part of me, so I no longer desire this, so that all that remains is my desire for you.

That's my prayer for myself with the Lord, and it's not fully there to fruition yet, but that's my encouragement to everybody and anybody in that situation is just, Lord, finish the work that you started in me.

Finish every purpose that you put me here for before you take me from this planet and you take me home with you.

And Lord, make me pleasing to you.

And on that day that I stand before you, let me hear you say, all because of your grace and what you did.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

The joy of your master.

Amen.

Wow.

Well, that's a good place to, to, to wrap up.

I, I, I just want to thank you guys for, for just coming on the show and, and just what just amazing.

God's timing, just doing it today.

And just.

It's just a powerful story.

And for just.

Just like Zach mentioned, if.

If you're just not sure, if you're.

If you're not quite a believer, cry out to God.

That's kind of my testimony.

I wasn't a believer.

I didn't know what I quite believed.

And I did that exact prayer.

I just said, God, if you're out there, if you're real, can you show me?

And he did.

About two weeks later, I started a Bible study, and it wasn't long after that where a gentleman led me to the Lord.

And so it was that exact prayer.

So I encourage anybody who just isn't quite there yet.

Just, if you don't even know how to pray, just ask God.

Ask God to show him him.

And he will.

He will show up.

He will show up.

So thank you guys so much for your testimony.

It was.

It's.

It's amazing.

I'm so glad you're here still.

Thank you.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm thankful for your guys's story today.

If this story has been a blessing to you guys, would you guys do me a favor and hit that subscribe button on YouTube?

We're on Instagram.

We're also on Facebook as well.

Give us a follow.

You can find us at Abundant Life fm.

We have all of our show notes there.

Go we.

We have all of our episodes there.

And we just thank you guys for.

For being faithful, for listening.

We'd ask that you guys pray for us, and we'll see you guys in the next episode.

Number 80.

Number 80.

All right, guys.

Bye for now.

See ya.

Thank you for listening to the Abundant Life podcast.

We pray you were blessed by today's episode.

Please visit us online at abundantlife F. Until next time.

May God bless you.